I wanna protect you
by Northernryu
Summary: Naruto&Sasuke. A tale of Naruto and Sasuke's past. The background story to the NARUTO series where the true relationship of Naruto and Sasuke is told. Their relationship is more than just good friends who just suddenly came together in Team 7...
1. Chapter 1:Who in the world would love me

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 1: Who in the world would love me?

-

_I don't know why... but everybody dislikes me.__  
__They don't come near me, child nor adult..._

-

At Konoha kindergarten I met new people my age.  
I knew nobody and nobody knew me but I smiled and was being nice to everyone.  
I made quite a few friends on the first day and had let many of my classmates borrow my erasers and pencils.  
I should've felt pretty happy ... but one thing was bothering me.  
It was the teacher's look towards me.  
Mari sensei looked at me with cold eyes filled with fear and ..._hate_? I could see it every time our eyes locked.  
Did she pity me because I didn't have any parents? But why hate? Why me?

The next day, fewer people came near me and more eyes were felt on me.  
The same as Mari sensei's. Just cold stares.  
What did I do? I hadn't done anything wrong! I hadn't been mean to anyone... then why was everyone looking at me like that?  
_What's wrong with me?_

By the third day, no one talked to me or came near me.  
Everyone ignored me.  
I felt like crying, but I'm not a girl. That's what I said to myself.  
I didn't want to cry in front of everyone and embarrass myself.  
So instead, I always put up a goofy smile and showed people that I was enjoying school even though I was alone.

Lunch times, I climbed a tree and sat on a branch, leaning against the huge stem of the tree.  
No one bothered to come near this tree since I was here.  
I was only 5. Yet people didn't seem to care if a little child was isolated.

In the evenings, I walked around the village since I had nothing else to do.  
Everybody created a huge distance from me every time they feel or see my presence, as if I was something dangerous or a weird creature that shouldn't be here.  
_What was it about me that they can't accept?_

After a few weeks, a classmate came up to me during class time and asked for an eraser.  
I smiled genuinely and gave him one.  
When the classmate came back, he gave me back my eraser which was cut into millions of pieces, scattering before my eyes and onto my desk.  
Anger rushed through my veins.  
I grabbed a handful of my remains of the eraser and threw it as hard as I could at that grinning classmate in front of me as I screamed in rage.

Tears of anger formed in the corner of my eyes.

Everybody's attention was on me now.

All became silent, except my heavy breath.

"What's your problem?" the classmate asked as he spat out bits of eraser that entered his mouth.

"WHAT'S _MY_ PROBLEM!" I shouted as I grabbed his collar and shaking him hard.  
The teacher stopped me and accused me for violence.

_So I'm the one who gets told off for this? And I have to apologize?_

"Mari sensei... I need to go to the bathroom..." I said in a quiet, clouded voice and rushed out of the door.

Of course I didn't apologize.

I knew that I wasn't the one who did something wrong.

When I reached the toilets, I washed my hands since I couldn't find anything else to do.  
Washing hands wasn't what I wanted to do but if I didn't do something, I knew I would collapse into a fit of endless crying or rage and kick or punch into breaking and smashing things.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror before me.

Bright, crystal blue eyes and messy blond, spiked up hair reflected in the mirror, which oddly seemed to match.  
Three line marks on each cheek which meant nothing to me.

I sighed and shifted my gaze away from myself.  
I walked back to the classroom as I dried my hands on my white t-shirt, leaving two wet marks.  
Just as I was about to step into the classroom, when I heard Mari sensei speaking to the class so I hid behind the classroom door before anyone knew I wasn't there, listening.

"I know he is a little ...different," I heard her say.  
_  
__How am I different?__  
_  
"And I know your parents' have told you not to go near him,"

My heart skipped a beat.

I grabbed my shirt where my heart would be and pulled on it tight which didn't seem to help my heart that thumped so rapidly, it hurt.  
_  
__What's that supposed to mean? How come everybody knows me and tries to stay away from me?__  
_  
"And I know I told you kids not to go near him and talk to him as well. It's hard for me too, knowing what he is... I don't want to cause any major trouble. Please keep aware all the time."  
My eyes downcast and I didn't realize I was half out of the shadows.  
Mari sensei noticed me as she faced the doorway.  
She became white as paper from shock since I overheard everything she said.

She opened her mouth slightly to say something but I didn't want to hear it so I turned and ran as fast as I could out of school, straight home, tears of pain falling down his cheeks.

What is my purpose of being alive?

I am Uzumaki Naruto.

The lonely young kindergarten student who has too many wounds in his heart for a 5 year old...

-

-


	2. Chapter 2:Existence of a monster

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 2: Existence of a monster

A couple of years passed and Naruto became a ninja academy student.  
He sat, alone as usual, waiting for the last class to begin by a sensei with a scar across his nose.  
A calm, swift, raven-haired boy sat next to Naruto ever so silently that he didn't realize he was seating next to him until the boy spoke to him.

"Hey, why are you always alone?" The boy asked in a bored tone, looking uninterested.  
For someone to start up a 'proper' conversation with Naruto, was beyond the level of a miracle.  
Naruto looked up to see who it was with a glint of hope in his eyes, but quickly turned away.

The boy was handsome, pale-faced and everything so perfect to which any girl would get attracted to.  
As soon as Naruto had a glimpse, he knew who it was.  
It was Uchiha Sasuke, the most popular guy in class and to which every girl admired... no, fell in love.

_Completely opposite to me..._ Naruto thought.

"Oi, I'm talking to you, dobe," he muttered sounding a little irritated, looking sideways at Naruto from his position where he laced his fingers and rested his chin on top of it while having elbows on the desk for support.

"_Don't call me dobe!_" Naruto suddenly stood up and shrieked.  
The action caused Sasuke to open his eyes wide in surprise.

"Hey! Naruto you idiot! Don't shout at Sasuke-kun! It's so rude!" Sasuke's admirer number 1, Haruno Sakura told Naruto off which Naruto totally ignored and continued to yell as if she's not there.

"If humiliating me is the only thing you want, then don't _ever_ sit next to me again you son of a wh-re!"

Whoa. Calm down. Ever heard of anger management? Plus, what you said just now was _way_ out of the line. That's what you would normally say to yourself.  
But Naruto didn't care what in the world happens or what people thought about him.  
It was him who would get in trouble anyway, his fault or not.

He just hated types of guys who would come up just to show off and humiliate him; and the name at the top of his list in his mind, was _Uchiha Sasuke_.  
Sasuke didn't mean to. But Naruto didn't know that.  
It was the first time Sasuke spoke up to someone first.  
But Naruto didn't know that. He probably wouldn't have noticed how significant it was to Sasuke.  
And so he threw a jumble of insults at him rudely as ever.

"_NARUTO!_" Sakura's angry voice unisoned with another.  
It was the sensei's.

"Naruto, I do not want to hear you swear ever again in my class! Stand out side the classroom!"

"_Glad_ to!" Was Naruto's come back, "it's better that having to sit with f-cking bastards like _him_!"  
Naruto pointed accusingly at Sasuke, and then stormed out of the class, slamming the doors so hard that it shook the window panes.

At the end of class, everybody filed out of the class and headed home with friends.  
Naruto sat on the floor of the corridor cross-legged, folded arms and looking grumpy.  
Iruka sensei sighed and crouched down before Naruto.

"Naruto, why did you swear at him? Why can't you be a bit more normal? If you don't be rude and get too emotional, you can make friends," Iruka sensei tried to explain.  
Naruto glared at Iruka sensei icily. A glare that seemed too deadly to be coming from a 7 year old.

"What's _normal_ Iruka sensei?"

Naruto leaned hard on the word 'normal'.  
As far as Naruto was concerned, there was no such thing as the word 'normal' containing inside him whom people could identify no matter _what_ he did.

"You don't know me, sensei," Naruto spat.  
_It can't be helped_ Iruka sensei thought and gave up on Naruto._It is hard for Naruto to be treated normally in the first place..._

"Anyway, I don't want to hear any swear words come out of your mouth again, you got that?" Iruka sensei ordered.

"You won't hear any more swear words from my mouth again _in class_," Naruto re-phrased, "yeah, I can promise you that."  
Iruka left, sighing.

Naruto stood up and opened the door to his classroom to get his bag.  
He spotted a guy sitting on a desk on the far side, looking out at the sunset through the window.  
The guy turned around from the sound of the door opening.

"What're you doing with my bag, bastard?" Naruto asked.

"It's not 'bastard'. It's 'Sasuke'," he replied.

"What're you still doing here?" Naruto asked.  
Sasuke, who held Naruto's bag, walked over towards Naruto and passed it over.

"Waiting for you," was what Sasuke said cooly, "what took you?"

"It's none of your f-cking business," Naruto snarled.

At this point, Iruka sensei was right behind the classroom door which was closed and was about to open for Iruka sensei had forgotten to take some papers from his desk and was about to get them back when he heard Naruto swear again.  
Iruka's shoulder's slumped along with his head and sighed inwardly.

"I though sensei told you not to swear in class," Sasuke noted towards Naruto whose eyes twitched with anger.

"Class is over c-nt! Go to hell!" Naruto answered.  
This was the last straw that Iruka could handle and he was about to open the door to tell Naruto off severely when Sasuke asked a question that held Iruka back from barging into the scene.

"You're only 7, the same age as me, yet you know a lot of swear words to throw at me... where did you learn them?" Sasuke asked, just out of interest.

"Why would you wanna know?" Naruto growled.  
Iruka sensei curious for the answer for this as well.  
Naruto is such a small child to know all these words.

Sasuke stayed silent and waiteed patiently, and to this Naruto smirked with a wicked, almost evil look.

"Heh, you wanna know? I'll tell you why," Naruto said, "It's because everybody hates me as if I'm a _monster_!"

"What's that got to do with swear-?"

"Tell me, if you see a monster who can understand our language, what would you do? If you hate it so much that you want it to disappear or not see it ever again, what would you do?" Naruto's smirked widened as he asked this.

"I...I don't kn-" Sasuke started but Naruto cuts him off with a loud shout.

"'GET AWAY FROM ME YOU F-CKING MONSTER!' 'GO TO HELL!' 'You shouldn't even be existing!' 'Don't go near my child you wicked creature!' 'Where do you think you're looking at you wh-re!'"

Sasuke froze, shocked at Naruto's sudden outburst.  
Naruto's smirk had clearly been wiped off and was replaced by deep anger.

"That's what you would say, _wouldn't you_!" Naruto continued to shout at Sasuke, "saying as much as you want and not caring how deep the words wound it or how much the words fill in the it's mind and stain every inch of it, making it irremovable for_life_! The next thing you'll do is give it as much misery as possible! Throw any garbage or rocks to throw at it to injure it as much as you can so it won't stand up ever again! Maybe being hopeful for the chance that it might die! Well, you know what! THERE IS NO SUCH THING IS NO DAMN PAIN!"  
Naruto kicked the nearest desk as hard as he can, screaming.

The desk shoots and crashes over to the other side of the room, leaving nothing between the dumbstruck Sasuke rooted to the floor and Naruto who was panting from all the energy used for shouting kicking.

"But no one damn cares a sh-t about how I would feel," Naruto whispered, after he was breathing normally, with deep pain evident in his voice, slicing through Sasuke's heart as the final blow.  
Silence fell upon them for a long time. The scene just seemed to be frozen.

"...sorry," Sasuke managed to say when he found his voice.

"Sorry for _what!_" Naruto sneered as he snatched his bag off Sasuke, and then turned his heels around to leave without waiting for Sasuke's answer.

-  
-


	3. Chapter 3:Wanting hope, wanting love

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 3: Wanting hope, wanting love... yet no words come out of my mouth...

Sasuke wasn't able to stop Naruto and he stood helplessly, watching Naruto's small figure disappear behind the classroom door where by this time, Iruka sensei had already slipped into the classroom next door and stayed close to the wall.

Iruka sensei and Sasuke's heart felt stone-heavy while walking home, heavy from knowing little about Naruto and what he was been coping with every day.

Naruto walked through town, downcast as people around him hid or walked faster,_away from him_.  
He felt all the eyes on him. All not particularly nice.  
When he was at the end of town, many drunkards from the same bar as always, threw Naruto the exact same words he had screamed out earlier to Sasuke.  
Some threw broken glass bottles which hit the small blond figure.  
Streaks of blood ran down Naruto's side face but he kept walking, not faster nor slower.  
He wasn't allowed to. He knew, whatever else he did, would be like lighting the fire on massive amounts of oil. (Jap idiom)

_It'll heal by tomorrow anyway…_he thought.

But as he walked further on, more things were thrown at him followed by harsh words that dipped equally deeply into his wounds of his heart.  
At last when no one was around, Naruto crumpled to the ground, not bothered to bear the pain anymore.  
He didn't have the strength to walk back all the way to his home.

"Oh, well... this could be my bed for tonight..." Naruto mumbled, looking at the ground with weak eyes.

"No it can't!" A voice demanded above Naruto, whose eyes opened wide in surprise from realization to which voice that belonged to.

"...you?"  
Sasuke pulled Naruto's arm up and around his neck to carry Naruto.

"F-ck off..." Naruto said in a bare whisper.

"To leave you out in the cold? To leave you heavily injured? It's autumn already and you'll catch a cold or die of blood loss. No way am I going to ignore you as if I hadn't noticed you," Sasuke replied.

"I don't care what you think bastard... Get you f-cking hands off-."

"_No!_"  
Naruto awoke from his drowsiness by Sasuke's loud, stern voice which seemed that it came out of Sasuke's mouth louder than he intended. Naruto didn't think he had ever heard Sasuke shout that loud before in his life!  
A worried grim look was upon Sasuke's face that somehow made Naruto comforted by.

"When I make up my mind, it's _definite_. Now, which way's your home?" Sasuke asked.

"..."  
Naruto's drowsiness seemed to come in and out, and he stared up at Sasuke's sharp, then blurry, then sharp, then blurry face again for a long time, until Sasuke questioned him.

"_Well_?"

"...left on the third corner, right on the second, straight to the end then the left house," Naruto navigated as they walked over.

"Where's your key?" Sasuke asked, puffing next to Naruto whose consciousness seemed to be at its limit from the loss of blood as they reached the front of Naruto's house.

"Don't have one... never locked..." Naruto mumbled, his eyes becoming unfocused.  
Naruto slumped as the world became black and he fell unconscious.

Sasuke started to panic, and he rushed into Naruto's room, setting him on the bed before he looked around for a first aid kit.

There wasn't any.

Sasuke rushed back with empty hands.

Naruto's bed was starting to stain deep red and he heard Naruto's breathing become more rapid that only made Sasuke head go berserk from panic.  
Sasuke fiddled around with his nimble fingers and took out a small bandage from his bag to wrap it around Naruto's head. He then quickly worked on Naruto's wounds on his arms.

As Sasuke put band-aids on, he felt that he was seeing the wounds heal a little already.  
He shook his mind and told himself he was just seeing things.

"People can't heal that quickly," Sasuke said to himself, while turning Naruto over after taking his top off.  
An ugly wound was there which Sasuke wiped with a wet cloth.  
As he did, Naruto's back became cleaner and started to reveal previous scars all over.

"Oh god, Naruto..." Sasuke whispered.  
He ripped the bottom of his own shirt and wrapped it around Naruto's back since he was out of bandages.  
When that was done, Sasuke lay Naruto on the bed gently and put a blanket over him which he found on the couch.

And then Sasuke then leaned over Naruto and cried.  
Wept for Naruto.

Naruto didn't know this happened... And he'll never know...

Sasuke waited for Naruto's parents to come home.  
He couldn't leave Naruto behind all by himself with deep injuries.  
Sasuke had dried his tears and had sat on a chair which he drew beside Naruto.

Naruto groaned a little and started to open his heavy eyes.  
It was dark, late night.  
Naruto shifted his eyes towards Sasuke, and did a double take.

"What'reyoustilldoinhere?" Naruto asked which came out as a slur, his tongue feeling numb from surprise.  
His voice sounded dry, but clear.  
Sasuke handed a glass of water to him.  
Naruto took it and noticed Sasuke's eyes were the faintest pink.  
_As if... he was crying?_  
Naruto shook his head mentally.

"I was going to wait and stay here till your parents came back home," Sasuke replied while Naruto was drinking.

"Ahahahaha..." A hoarse, lifeless laugh came from Naruto's mouth after his glass was emptied, " ...you think I have parents?"

"...what? You don't? I mean... like- or at- at least a caregiver?" Sasuke asked shocked.

Naruto loosened his grip on the glass and let it roll, off the bed and shatter on to the ground into millions of pieces which seemed to express Naruto's inner thoughts and deep mind at that point.

"No..." Naruto whispered at first, but soon anger flickered in his eyes which solitariness was visible deep in his pupil.

"No one would help a f-cking monster!" Naruto growled and ripped a bandage off his cheek, and the bandage wrapped around his forehead with another.

"Hey! What're you-" Sasuke stopped in mid-sentence, seeing that Naruto's wounds were already clear gone.

_Impossible!_ Sasuke thought, _a normal person can't heal in this short period of time!_

"This is why I told you not to mind. You don't have to take care of me; my body does it on its own. Leave," Naruto said without looking at him.  
Sasuke looked down, shadowing his face as he hesitated to look at the pained expression across Naruto's face.

"...is this why? Just because you can heal faster and it isn't human-like... is it just because of this that you are treated like this...?" Sasuke couldn't stop his voice from trembling.  
Naruto couldn't tell if that was from fear or from sadness.  
So Naruto just repeated his words.

"_Leave_"

With nothing more to say, Sasuke slowly picked up his bag and walked away.

"See you tomorrow...," Sasuke mumbled before shutting the door.  
Naruto didn't even look once at Sasuke but sat still like a lifeless doll until he went to reach of his chest where his heart should be, where it hurt so badly.  
He felt another bandage and he took it off, then realizing it wasn't a bandage, but a part of Sasuke's shirt.

"He ripped his shirt, that idiot," Naruto quietly said to himself as he brought up the material to his face. He let his tears fall as he held hard onto Sasuke's shirt which had Sasuke's scent.

_I wish he would never find out... what I am..._

-


	4. Chapter 4:Don't hide shame or courage

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 4: Don't hide shame or courage

The next day, they both attended school, and their eyes flickered over each other countless times, yet both, too afraid and too ashamed to speak to each other.  
Iruka sensei seemed more or less glad that Naruto wasn't swearing anymore after yesterday's incident, although he noticed Naruto and Sasuke were both edgy with each other's existence.

Naruto was meant to say 'thanks'.  
Sasuke was meant to say 'sorry'.

But they both didn't have the courage to.

Sasuke left early that day, after school, which left Naruto walking all alone, like usual. The same eyes were felt upon him again. But somehow, that day was somewhat different to others and Naruto sensed the air of difference just by walking through his every day route to his way home.

At the end of the road, where the drunkards normally were, they didn't throw anything at Naruto, but instead hid behind doors of the bars and just glared.

For the first time of his life, he reached his house without getting a single scratch.  
And another unusual thing that day was that Sasuke was at Naruto's doorstep, standing with his hands in his pockets and waiting for Naruto.

"Uh...that's my house..." Naruto said awkwardly.

"I know," Sasuke replied coolly, looking side ways at Naruto.

An awkward silence fell upon the two.

Naruto broke it by stepping forwards and around Sasuke to go inside his own house, ignoring Sasuke and putting a hand to his door handle. But Naruto couldn't seem to open it.  
He felt uneasy as he felt Sasuke really close on his left side.

"Why did you come here?" Naruto asked without looking at Sasuke.

"..."  
Sasuke's eyes squinted a little, wanting to say something but couldn't.  
Not getting and answer, Naruto looks up with a questioned look at Sasuke, and then realizes that his left cheek has a deep gash, and was bleeding.

"Hey! You're hurt!" Naruto exclaimed, grabbed Sasuke's wrist and pulled him inside.

"Wha-!" Sasuke was taken by surprise and nearly tripped himself.  
Why Naruto hadn't seen it at first sight was because Sasuke was looking at Naruto sideways, only showing his right side of his face, since Sasuke had tried to hide it.

In the middle of the living room, Sasuke pulled his arm back quickly and broke away from Naruto's grip.

"It's fine! It's only a scratch," Sasuke said in a rush as he roughly rubbed the blood off his cheek with the back of his hand.  
He felt his face grow warm as he blushed from embarrassment to be worried over by Naruto who, till a second ago, had not the care in the world of who got injured where.  
Naruto growled, pulled Sasuke again and made him sit on his bed.  
Naruto went to get a bandage and a wet hand towel, leaving a slightly shocked Sasuke sitting on Naruto's bed which was stained in blood from yesterday.

When Naruto came back, he rubbed his wet towel against Sasuke's cheek softly, wiping the blood off with extreme care.  
Sasuke winced a little, but stared at Naruto who didn't realize he was being stared it from such concentration upon Sasuke's wound.  
This was the first time Sasuke felt Naruto's gentle fingers upon his cheeks which held it in place, and the gentle processing of tending Sasuke made him realize that Naruto isn't a rough, mad-mouthed, bad guy at all, but quiet the opposite: kind, gentle, caring... and lonely.  
_Naruto's defence was to act up strongly and hide away his fragile self... because that's how he was forced to be.__  
__The villagers made him mask his true self...__  
__Why can't nobody see through, past his mask?_  
Once Naruto was done with wiping all the blood off, he put a large bandage and taped it on Sasuke, which then brought Sasuke back to Earth, away from his train of thoughts.

So he has bandages... I wonder where it was. I couldn't find them anywhere... Sasuke thought.

Before Sasuke got to mumble a 'thanks', he was questioned.

"What made the oh-so-great Uchiha foolishly get a wound so deep?" Naruto asked, with his usual tone again with such sarcasm, yet to Sasuke it seemed the words had their venom taken out of it.

"I...uh..."

How was he supposed to explain?  
He couldn't tell Naruto that he got hurt for Naruto.

___-Flashback-___

_Sasuke quickly left school before any girls were able to follow him to annoy him right back to his house, and he went straight to the bathroom.___

_There he did the 'Henge no Jutsu' hand structures and transformed into Naruto's figure and walked out of the door casually. Too casual that Sasuke at first, didn't realize.__  
__Sasuke knew Naruto stays at school for awhile every day after school so he walked the paths where Naruto would normally go without being so cautious about getting caught.___

_He walked out of the school and saw his reflection on the school windows to check out his transformation which was perfect, yet found somehow he found it different to the usual Naruto, but not figuring out what he was missing.__  
__A rock was thrown at him that brought him back out from his thoughts and he dodged it before the rock had reached him. He turned to the 3 guys his age, who were looking angry and frustrated that the rock that they had thrown got dodged.___

_"Don't dodge it you monster! We have the right to punish you for being in our school! And you have to accept and receive those punishment like you're supposed to!" and with that, another rock was flung at him, missing him from the boy's inaccurate throwing.___

_"Dodge it again and you'll have my father teach you a lesson again!" another said, before throwing a rock and which had it heading straight at Sasuke who only had a split second to stop himself from dodging the rock.__  
__It hit him on the arm, not strong enough to feel the pain, yet he realized that if he were to go against them, it wasn't just the kids who_he'd_have to face with.__  
__He slowly backed away and walked towards Naruto's house while the kids were yelling at him.___

_"That's right, go back home, monster!"__  
__"Don't come back!"__  
__"Go die, monster!"___

_Sasuke held in all the anger building up inside him and he forced himself not to flail out at them while he tried to block out their voices. In the village, Sasuke felt all the cold, cruel eyes upon him that weren't seeing him as a human, and harsh words were thrown at him from random people every now and then.__  
__He suddenly felt a surge of pain in his heart.__  
__Not from the harsh people but to know how Naruto felt all the time.___

_Of course these people didn't wound Sasuke's heart as much as it did Naruto since Sasuke didn't know how it feels to be treated this way ever since he can remember and have no one to support him, nor have parents.__  
__He belonged nowhere...___

_He looked at one of the windows of a shop where he once again saw his reflection of Naruto's form, and he found that now it looked a lot more like the Naruto he knew. What was missing from before was the slumping shoulders and the sullen eyes, the happiness drained from his face, ruining his glint of blue eyes that were supposed to be much more radiant and beautiful than people every knew since they were the ones who kept tainting it.___

_At the end of the alley, where the drunkards were, Sasuke walked downcast, his heart heavy, filled with sadness for Naruto. A drunk man threw a broken beer bottle at Sasuke who sensed it and dodged by moving aside but didn't have his reflex quick enough from the distraction of his minds and emotion.__  
__He received a deep gash on his left cheek.___

_Sasuke death-glared at the man who threw it, as his jutsu became undone and returned to his normal figure with a poof.__  
__The drunken man looked shocked to see that it wasn't Naruto and that Sasuke jumped up in front of the man, raising his leg to kick under the man's chin, strong.___

_The man flipped, rolled over and crashed into a bar, bleeding from the head.__  
__Sasuke walked up to him, giving him the best, darkest death glare he ever made, his eyes slightly glowing red.___

_"So you're the one who's hurting Naruto," Sasuke said, piercing the man with his glare with such force that the man couldn't move or talk from fear though the people in the bar charged at Sasuke, as if Sasuke's words were a signal for attack.___

_"...you guys too?" Sasuke asked quietly before moving into action.__  
__He bet up all the people in the bar one by one, giving each a clear hit so they won't be able to stand up again for awhile.___

_"If you hurt Naruto ever again, I'll kill you all," Sasuke warned, and then left the bar quietly with his hands in his pockets.___

_-Flashback ends-___

_There's no way I can tell him what I've done_Sasuke thought.

"I ...was practicing my shuriken and one flung back at me accidentally," Sasuke lied, but Naruto bought it as quickly as an innocent and gullible person can ever be.

"Look who's calling _me_ the dobe," Naruto smirked.  
Sasuke smiled, in relief that Naruto didn't find Sasuke lying.  
His smile was a genuine one, so soft that made Naruto blush a little.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, as he got of the bed and started to leave.

"Wait!" Naruto suddenly cried.  
Sasuke looked back, surprised.

"I...I should... be the one," Naruto stammered.

"Should be the one what?" Sasuke asked.

"...to ...to say ...uh...thanks," Naruto mumbled, looking away from Sasuke, which makes Sasuke form a small smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Sasuke said.

"But tomorrow's Saturday, idiot!" Naruto pointed out.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto and repeated his words.

"I'll see you tomorrow"

-


	5. Chapter 5:You can't change who I am

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 5: You can't change who I am...

Early next morning, Sasuke knocked the door of Naruto's house but there was no reply.

Confused, he opened the door to see Naruto still asleep, on the couch.

Sasuke walked over to him and slightly shook him to wake him up.

Naruto didn't wake up...

Sasuke rolled his eyes then rolled Naruto over so he was facing the ceiling to wake him up, when Naruto covered his head with his arms in his sleep.

"_Don't hurt me! I didn't do anything! I'm not a monster!_" Naruto cried.

Sasuke felt shocked.

"...Naruto, are you... alone...even in your sleep?" Sasuke whispered as hot tears prickled his eyes. Sasuke hugged Naruto and cried, as he knelt on the floor.

"I'll promise I'll be by your side forever. No matter what," Sasuke vowed, "don't worry. Don't feel so isolated anymore..."  
As if reacting to this response, Naruto let out a tear in his sleep as his face softened.

Naruto woke up in midday and found himself holding onto Sasuke's hand, who had fallen asleep beside him.

"Whoa!" Naruto cried as he let go of Sasuke's hand immediately as if an electric shock passed through their hands.  
Naruto's face burned and was awfully confused of what had happened.  
He put his hands to his cheeks to cool it down, when he felt tear stains on it.

_I was... crying?_ Naruto thought as he rubbed them off.  
He put his confusion aside when he saw Sasuke's soft expression of his sleeping face.

I didn't know he can look this soft...

Sasuke was normally a dark figure, dark hair and dark clothes.

His face was hard with coldness or smirking when mocking.

That was the only two expressions of Sasuke which Naruto knew of.

But seeing Sasuke like this, he could see more of the paleness and how soft his skin looked.

Naruto raised his arm without thinking and reached towards Sasuke's pale cheek and amazed himself from feeling how soft it was.

He was amazed since he had never touched anyone before in his life except when his fists collided with opponents at school.

Suddenly Naruto blushed at what he was doing and let go.

He shook Sasuke awake while saying, "hey! What're you doing in my house?"

Sasuke woke up to see Naruto's cheeks flushed, and was surprised.

"I came here in the morning but you were asleep," Sasuke answered.

"You came here when I was asleep!" Naruto gasped.

"Sorry, since you don't lock your house...," Sasuke shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

"...and and-...y-you were alright with that? I mean... I didn't do anything to you?" Naruto stumbled on his words, panicking.

"...? Do what to m-," Sasuke's sentence crumbled and fell off track before it was all out as he felt the floor beneath him for the first time.

"What the...?"

The floor had a deep scratch-like mark which traveled across halfway through the living room.

As Sasuke's eyes adjusted to the midday light, he suddenly saw many scratches across the walls, on the ceilings, on the doors and with blood splattered everywhere.

"...what's all this," Sasuke whispered, his lips barely moving.

"I...don't actually know..." Naruto mumbled, "It's just that there's always a few more every few nights. I find myself bleeding and lying on the floor, not recalling how I got there..."

Sasuke's previous visits had been in evenings and early morning that Sasuke couldn't see inside the house in detail, but now in broad daylight, everything was visible even though the curtains were half shut.

Naruto brought up his fingers and sniffed it.

"I don't smell blood... I think I was alright tonight..." Naruto murmured to himself.

Suddenly Naruto was covered by two warm, pale arms and was embraced.

"Wha- wha- wha!" Naruto's face turned bright red and he tried to push Sasuke away without any success.

"No matter what happens, I'll be your friend..."

"..."  
Naruto's eyes hardened.  
He didn't believe those words.

In the past, he had an experience who had said the exact same phrase to him yet turned him down as soon as he found out that Naruto wasn't normal.  
_  
__"But you said...'you'll be my friend no matter what'"___

_"But I thought you were normal. A human. But you're not!"___

_"Yes, I am!"___

_"No! You're a monster! Don't come near me again!"_

Naruto shoved away Sasuke roughly. His eyes were shut tight and his face scrunched to an hateful and despair filled look.  
Naruto didn't want to hear those words ever again.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Naruto said sarcastically, "next thing you know; you'll never be coming near me ever again."

Sasuke looked at Naruto with a hurt expression, not because of rejection, but for Naruto's solitary life and how he pushes away everyone, not allowing anyone to get near him.  
Naruto ignored Sasuke's feelings and stood up to leave the house for a walk.

"Then...I will bet you," Sasuke started, "I'll bet you that even when we reach the age of 20, we will still be friends."  
Naruto was standing in front of his door as he took in what Sasuke said, and snickered.  
Before Naruto closed the door, Sasuke heard Naruto reply which told him that Naruto doesn't believe in him at all.

"Yeah, whatever..."

-

-


	6. Chapter 6:When things are going great

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 6: Just when things are going great, the world crashes down...

When Naruto came back home after a long walk, he found Sasuke gone...

_So he left..._ Naruto thought, and went to his room to find not just Sasuke's existence gone.  
_Wha-?_

"Okaeri," Sasuke said from behind. (Welcome back home)

Naruto spun around to see Sasuke at the front of the door step with his white bed sheets. Sasuke had been to the river to wash all the blood stains off the bed sheets and had dried them.

"Ta...tadaima," Naruto managed to get out after this surprise of seeing Sasuke. (I'm back)

It felt weird for Naruto to say 'tadaima' since he never said it before.

He never had a person waiting at home for him to come back, where he belonged before. He belonged nowhere.

He helped Sasuke put the bed sheets back on the bed and they both lay on the bed.

"...thanks," Naruto said with a natural smile forming on his lips as he closed his eyes.  
Sasuke also closed his eyes, smiling.

"I bet you won't..." Naruto started, "I bet you won't still be my friend when we're 20."

Sasuke frowned and looked up at Naruto but he had his eyes closed.

"But...," Naruto continued," if I lose to the bet, I'll give you 100,000￥"

"You don't have that much," Sasuke said with a laugh.  
Naruto joined his laugh, and the two joked around for awhile.  
When their laughing ceased, Sasuke said, "If I lose my bet, I'll give you everything I've got."

"What if you don't have anything when you're 20?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I will have myself," Sasuke replied.

"Then you can't die before then! And I won't either! That's a promise!" Naruto exclaimed.  
Sasuke agreed and entwined his shortest finger with Naruto's.

Half a year passed and the two spent most of their time together.  
With Sasuke around, Naruto stopped swearing and smiled as if he's never had before, even though somewhere deep inside, he knew he would regret becoming so vulnerable and letting himself fully involved in Sasuke.

And just as he thought, the day came when his happiness crashed down when Sasuke turned Naruto down one day.

_All because of Itachi..._

Sasuke missed a day of school the day after the incident.  
In the evening, while walking home, Naruto spotted Sasuke walking slowly, away from town to the wharf. Not knowing the reason why he was away, Naruto was just simply happy to see Sasuke again after missing him for a couple of days and was worried about him, his heart leaped from joy at the sight of his most trusted best friend standing before him.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called out with a broad smile.  
Sasuke stopped walking, but didn't turn back. First hint of something terribly wrong.  
Second hint, when Naruto reached Sasuke, he already felt a different aura from Sasuke and his smile started to drop.

"Hey...where were you today, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, nervously.

"It's none of your business, dobe," Sasuke replied coldly.  
Naruto's eyes opened wide with shock.  
Naruto reached towards Sasuke's shoulder but was stopped by Sasuke.

"_Don't touch me._"


	7. Chapter 7:Undesired pain is never gone

Chapter 6: Undesired pain is never emptied out of your heart...

"Don't touch me," Sasuke glared at Naruto with a cruel voice.

"You're... not the same anymore?" Naruto's voice quivered.  
Sasuke doesn't reply but bore into Naruto's eyes as if he didn't acknowledge the existence before him.  
Naruto looked down, not able to help see Sasuke like that, different all of a sudden.

"...but you promised...you _promised_..." Naruto mumbled downcast.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as if he had forgotten, but Naruto doesn't realize this and goes on, "You promised...no matter what happens; you'll be my friend...no matter what..."

Naruto's tears sparkled in the ray of sunset which he couldn't stop himself from spilling. The sunset was bright orange and so beautiful and so romantic.

Yet, so sad ... so depressing.

Why was it so depressing? What was with the atmosphere that has been created between the two?  
There were rain clouds coming this way, representing the two solitary boys' inner selves.  
This night was going to be heavy rain.  
Not just the weather... but inside their hearts and mind. Damp, wet, cold and lonely like an abandoned dog in the middle of nowhere. Shaking. Shivering from the cold.  
No warm places to go to. Just all alone.

"Things have changed here, dobe. And it can't be reversed," Sasuke said cooly, looking down at Naruto.

"Don't... _call me dobe!_" Naruto pushed Sasuke hard, away from himself as he glared at Sasuke with tear-filled angry eyes, full of betrayal and regret.  
Pain plastered across Naruto as his eyes filled with the deepest sorrows.

"I knew it," Naruto forced the words out of his mouth as if it was something very bitter and disgusting.

He hated to say it.

But he did.  
He knew it.  
He couldn't deny that he was partially predicting this outcome.  
So stupid to find such small and hopeless thoughts of finding happiness.  
He knew he didn't deserve it. He's never allowed it.  
It always ends up hurting himself even more than before.  
But yet there he was again, creating the tiniest dream of hope.

Why? Because he badly wanted it. No one is ever satisfied with a life without love and care, no matter how much that person doesn't deserve it.  
He knew somewhere deep down that this happiness will never work out.  
He knew that it will come crashing down, crushing him, coming back at him twice as hard and violent. As much as he tried to obtain it, the harder and harsher the outcome was to him.

Yet he still wanted to dare himself to believe in something... someone... even if it was the tiniest spark that could barely be seen, as long as it was still faintly lighting up is darkness.  
He wanted to belong to someone. Believing that somewhere out in this world that there were yet people who care about his existence...  
He wanted to feel _alive_...

Until now...

"I knew it. I knew I was right all along! Promises are always made to be broken! You're no different to anybody else in this_ whole f-cking world!_" Naruto shouted out with tears streaming down his cheeks.  
He quickly wiped them off and turned away from Sasuke.  
To Sasuke, those tears, his emotional face was nothing but the finest, most sharpest blade he had ever been sliced through his heart.  
His heart shatters to see the other one's broken, and existence fading.

He let himself be consumed in loneliness, anger and betrayal.  
He let his emotions overflow and let it control him.  
He felt like he was the most unlucky person in the world that would make everyone pity him as he felt himself crushed by the thoughts and visions of his mum and dad, the anger of betrayal by who he once admired and had been always running as fast as he could to catch up to that talented brother. He couldn't forgive him!

But then what was he doing right now?  
What was Naruto feeling right now?

...Betrayal.

What Sasuke was doing was going down low to Itachi's level.  
He isn't any different to his hateful big brother.  
He couldn't betray Naruto! He was in pain! Naruto trusted him!  
He had been through much more harsh pasts and had been all alone right till this point. And how could've Sasuke ever thought that he was all alone, when he had the most important friend, there, right in front of him, to support him?

The guilt rushed through his spine, bone-chilling, making him shiver from head to toe. The panic he felt was crashing onto him like a huge wave that was unavoidable as he sensed that he was about to lose what was most important to him right at that moment.

Sasuke reached his arm out to Naruto before he regretted losing him forever.  
But before he was able to even call his name or touch him, Naruto words made Sasuke immobile and the thin chain that bounded them together just snapped and broke off...

_...ending everything._

"You just lost your bet, moron..."

Sasuke's eyes widened with shock and felt as if his heart just ripped apart.  
He wasn't able to stop Naruto walking away.  
He wasn't able to speak at all.  
His voice seemed to be lost by shock at that point.

_He was too late..._

When Naruto was out of view, Sasuke's knees gave way and he fell to his knees as he felt hot tears dropping down on the wooden wharf, tainting it dark like his heart, darker and darker till the light was no longer visible to him.  
Everything struck him so hard and deep, as he lost even the one person that he could have kept after losing everything else because of his greatest regretful option of thoughtlessly casting his most trustful friend that he was ever able to make.  
A painful scream made its way through Sasuke, the voice vocalizing the agony of his ripping heart which unfortunately, didn't ever reach Naruto's ears.

Drops of thick rain started to help darken the color of the wharf and joined his crying meanwhile also accompanying a certain lonely blond.  
When Naruto walked far enough so Sasuke was far out of view, Naruto leaned his forehead against a building nearby and let his tears fall freely while the now-heavy rain masked his tears.  
But contrasting the raven, he will not let himself cry aloud. Bringing more trouble, he was forced not to and became a habit of keeping his voice crushed and forced down deep within himself, becoming a habit.

Who can stop these two from weeping their hearts out from despair?  
It's all too big for them to take it all in, in their small young hearts.

_After all, they're only just 7 years old kids._

_One who lost his whole family and lost his first best friend._  
_One who never had any family and lost his first best friend._

_A best friend who he actually trusted on..._  
_The very first important person..._

That night, the rain splattering on the ground sounded louder than ever, ringing in the ears.


	8. Chapter 8:No second chances

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 8: Don't think... that everything has a second chance...

Even when Naruto went home, he lay on the couch and cried.  
His eyes never seemed to dry out. The despair was nothing compared to any other that he had received before. If this was the outcome, if he was going to get this outcome, he would never had believed Sasuke in the first place. He would never had smiled and enjoy being with him in the first place. He would have never tried to find a place where he belonged when all alone he was only just seeing such a falsely illusion.

No...

He knew this outcome. He knew it all. He regretted it so much because he knew everything and he knew he was going to regret it yet he allowed himself to be close to Sasuke and trust him, trying to find a reason to live. To have hopes in his life.  
All his tears drained onto his pillow which was now drenched with sorrow.  
_  
__I was so stupid! Naruto thought, so stupid to think that Sasuke might be a little different to others! So stupid to think that he might be the one who will be able to help me. .stupid. to trust his bloody f-cking words!_

More tears poured from Naruto's hot eyes which were blood-shot red.  
_  
__I should've never trusted him in the first place! Or believed him! I knew he was gonna be the same! But... I wanted..._

His fury towards himself died down, and turned into just deep depression. He didn't want to blame Sasuke anymore since it was his own decision to do all this after getting deceived by every other, yet he was the one who advanced towards him and allowed to be so gullible against Sasuke's words. There was nothing to blame against Sasuke. It was his own decision, option, thoughts, hope and regret.  
He couldn't be mad at Sasuke. He had no right to. And now that he had fully regretted his actions of allowing himself to get close to another, he was fully through this and decided to put an end to this. To put an end to everything. Going back to who he was, not trying to day-dream about being someone else when he can never be.  
_  
__I was just wishing... hoping... that he'll never leave my side...__  
__But now... I'm through with all this...__  
__I'm too tired to fight...__  
__I ... giv-...___

_!_

Naruto opened his eyes wide as he felt something writhing inside him.

Something he didn't like.  
As if his last words of his thoughts were a trigger, the existence inside Naruto was growing larger by the second.  
_  
__This... is the feeling I get before I blank out and find my walls wrecked... my fingers bloody...my body aching..._

Naruto started to tremble.

This hadn't happened much after spending time with Sasuke and not get bullied by drunkards, which had made Naruto forget this feeling.

But now it had come back and Naruto remembered the feeling how terrified he was when it had come to this.

___No...No! I don't want this! Help... Help me Sasuke!___

_SASUKE!_

-

Somewhere in the drenched Konoha village, Sasuke thought he heard Naruto shout out his name and he looked back towards the direction of Naruto's house.

_Naruto?_

He started to walk towards it but then paused.

_How can I ever face Naruto again? The one who broke his promise and friendship?_Sasuke thought, _No... I can't go and see him... I don't have the right to visit go near him again...ever..._

Sasuke turned his back, away where Naruto currently had lost his consciousness of his mind and unwillingly had unleashed the monster from deep within him.

Naruto woke up to find himself on the floor, not recalling how he got there. It took awhile to register his surroundings and remember how he came to be in that situation, but everything became clear when he found his hand all covered in red with blood.

_Oh yea... again..._  
When he tried to stand up, every inch of his body burned and ached as if he was put through a week's worth of excessive load of muscle work crammed to a day's work.  
He forced himself to sit up with great difficulty and then looked around the living room where additional scratches were made here and there, new patterning on the walls splattered with fresh blood.

Naruto felt sick.  
He skipped school that day and walked around town freely where, unfortunately, no one was to be seen anywhere _except_ just the one person he didn't want to see: Sasuke.

Sasuke stood, leaning against a tree as if waiting for someone.  
And that someone had seemed to be Naruto since Sasuke walked over to him after feeling Naruto  
s presence. Both eyes never tried to meet each other as they shortened the distance between them.  
Naruto tried to ignore Sasuke completely and walk past, but Sasuke stopped him by making him walk into Sasuke's outstretched arm.

Before Naruto was able to say something, Sasuke pulled Naruto's wrist and put something in Naruto's empty palm with his other.

"Here, 100,000￥. I lost the bet, didn't I?" Sasuke muttered.  
Naruto gritted his teeth hard in anger and gripped hard on the cash.  
He then threw it as _hard_ as he could at Sasuke.

It didn't hurt Sasuke physically, but as the cash blew off Sasuke's chest and scattered all over the place, Sasuke felt his heart scatter into pieces like those paper cash that turned merely into worthless existence to Naruto was no longer something that was important or worth the existence, but mere trash that could now just be disposed of. He didn't need it anymore. And that hurt, _a lot_.

"_I don't want any f-cking money!_"" Naruto screamed, "the only thing I had ever wanted in this world was _you_!"

Sasuke felt something pierce the core of his heart that destroyed his soul.  
He noticed that Naruto had used the past tense.  
He should have known, no...he_had_ known how much he meant to Naruto, but he had let that slip from one slight mistake he made in his life, and before he knew it, he found himself hugging hard onto Naruto, grasping tight onto Naruto's t-shirt like it was his lifeline. It _was_ his lifeline.  
Like Naruto had said, to Sasuke also, he only had Naruto for him.  
Without him, his life didn't exist in this world. He couldn't live on.

"_Sorry!_" Sasuke sobbed, eyes filling with hot tears, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry...Please forgive me..."

The answer came was harsh.

"No..." Naruto answered back, "I _can't_ forgive you."

His quiet tone was solemn, as he gently pushed Sasuke away from himself.

"You just lost my full trust on you; your chance is over..." Naruto said, letting the wind carry his words away, leaving absolutely nothing between the two.

Not even the strongest bond of friendship...

Sasuke had broken it, and Naruto had given up and had let go of the other end...  
Sasuke felt to his knees, and Naruto walked past him, already feeling guilty for hurting Sasuke's feelings...

...But he didn't regret it.

Naruto just couldn't lie to his own feelings, the fact that he couldn't trust Sasuke anymore.

_The only person who he ever truly trusted on..._  
Naruto had given it his all and gambled his life on him.  
Now he lost it. Nothing more to lose.  
He lost.

Game over.

Naruto cursed himself on the way home.

"Naruto! Are you swearing _again_?" a voice exclaimed in disbelief.  
It was Iruka, just blocks away from Naruto's house.

"I thought you had stopped swearing," growled Iruka sensei, and then noticed that Naruto's face was droned in tears.

"What's wrong Naruto? Are you alright? Can I help you?"

"It's none of your business, Iruka sensei. You can't help me, after all, you're just a sensei. What could you possibly do?" Naruto replied coldly, looking up at Iruka sensei with an icy glare.

"I can't? Isn't it about Sasuke?" Iruka sensei asked, clearly ignoring Naruto's glare since he knew about what happened to Sasuke's clan.

As if 'Sasuke' was the trigger, Naruto's mask came crashing down and started crying hard out like a child and cry like the age he should be, where Iruka sensei silently and kindly wrapped his arms around Naruto and comforted him.

After Naruto's tears ceased, Iruka took Naruto to a ramen-ya.

"Naruto, have you tried Ichiraku's ramen before?" Iruka sensei asked smiling warmly at Naruto who was still looking distraught.

He shook his head.

He didn't even _know_ what 'ramen' was.

"Then you should try it! It's one of the best foods in the world!"

"...okay," Naruto managed to say in a tiny voice.  
Iruka sensei became concerned about Naruto's weird behavior.  
There was going to be a big incident with Naruto and his feelings and Iruka sensei already sensed a little feeling of it coming.

While waiting for the ramen, Naruto lifted his eyes towards Iruka sensei.

"...why," Naruto asked, "are you trying to be nice to me, Iruka sensei?"  
This question gave a troubled upon Iruka sensei's face.  
The answer was so obvious, yet Naruto didn't know and he asks.  
Iruka sensei knew why Naruto thinks this is unnatural though.

It was unnatural for a person to treat a monster, equal to humans, to give it kindness, to give it care.

That was what Naruto was thoughts. Deep down, long ago, he had already given in and accepted that he was a monster.  
Because that's what everybody thought, and Naruto had to go along with that idea without a choice, because every single person was against him and he had no chance alone.  
Of course Naruto had gone against it countless times, but the end was always met by the word called failure, and found himself at the place called 'dead end', standing alone and always only accompanying beside him was a lonely cold, small shadow of himself.

"Because I'm worried about you of course," Iruka sensei told the depressed but didn't get a pleasant reply as he expected.

"_Liar_," Naruto said. It was probably one of the easiest words Naruto was able to say, so often and so freely, having confidence that he is right for once.

Iruka sensei frowned.

"Why would you worry about me? You have no reason to," Naruto went on.

"I was worried because you were good friends with Sasuke, and since he was acting a little different, I thought he might have made an affect on you. And you looked more distraught than I would have ever imagined. I couldn't simply leave you alone," Iruka sensei explained himself, straight forward to Naruto who looked up, but had spiritually dead eyes as he avoided any trusting in Iruka's words.

"You're no worried about me sensei... You're only worried about Sasuke," Naruto pointed out dully as if even his voice was no longer alive.

"That's not true- Oh, here. Eat this," Iruka sensei ordered giving Naruto his bowl of ramen.  
Naruto didn't feel like eating, but having nothing else to do, he slowly brought the noodles to his mouth for the first time.

"How is it?" Iruka sensei asked.

"It's good...," Naruto mumbled through his teeth, although the truth was that he couldn't taste anything. From his broken heart, and dead soul, his taste buds didn't seem to be working. In fact, he didn't even feel the cold wind outside or the hot, steaming ramen soup.

"Back to what I was saying," Iruka sensei started, after finishing his ramen while Naruto only unfilled 1/4 of his bowl.  
Iruka noted Naruto's appetite here and frowned.

"I'm worried about _you_ because you are always being hard on yourself too much," Iruka sensei pointed out.

"...How can I help it sensei, if I'm always treated like a monster?" Naruto mumbled through his ramen and Iruka sensei frowned at the little blonde's negativeness.

"You're not a monster to me, Naruto. You are my student and I feel the same way towards you, equally to others," Iruka said, trying to bring a small dim light within Naruto to bring him back to the light, but Naruto stamped out that light and didn't allow himself to step out into the light. He didn't let his words reach his heart and move his emotions or the dark clouds clouding his heart.  
Without any other words exchanged except for Iruka's few 'take care' and greetings of farewell, they parted their ways, promising Naruto would go back home safely by himself.

On the way home, he felt sick and went to nearby woods where he had to throw up everything that was in his stomach.

Naruto panted as he felt his throat burn and his mouth tasted bitter, matching his face as he grimaced the vision of a raven flashing across his mind.  
He made his way back onto the street after his breathing resumed into a steady one, where he spotted Sasuke, at the same time Sasuke spotted him.

Sasuke saw Naruto and quickly grimaced a little in mental pain, but before he was able to look away, he noticed Naruto's pale sick face and got worried.  
He walked towards Naruto with eyes showing full of concern, but when he was about to touch his shoulder, Naruto snarled.

"_Don't touch me!_"

-


	9. Chapter 9:Naturally afraid

Chapter 9: Chapter 9:Naturally afraid

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 9: Sometimes...instincts can't be helped...if you're human, you're naturally afraid...

"_Don't touch me_!"

Naruto quoted back the exact words that Sasuke had thrown to him.  
Sasuke retracted his hand back quickly.

Naruto suddenly felt himself lose conscious and before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning close to Sasuke and had his face inches above Sasuke's bare shoulder.

Sasuke felt the warm breath of Naruto's and blushed while his mind was spinning in deep confusion. The second he thought he was rejected badly, he had his blond on his shoulder.

"W-What-?" Sasuke started but was cut off short when Naruto bit into his shoulder deeply with his fangs which had formed, and Sasuke let out a deafening scream.

Sasuke tore away from Naruto and shoved him as hard as he could, unintentionally.  
Naruto landed with a thump at the foot of a tree where he glared up at Sasuke with red eyes, baring fangs.  
Sasuke held the side of his shoulder, terrified, watching Naruto stand on fours as he got ready to pounce on Sasuke again.

But before anything else could happen, Sasuke pushed Naruto back roughly against the tree behind him.  
When Naruto opened his eyes, his glare returned to Sasuke. This wasn't Naruto.  
Those blood red eyes were so terrifying that Sasuke lost all coherent thoughts and blindly tried to defend himself.

"Don't! _Stop_! Don't come near me!" Sasuke screamed, "GO AWAY!"

Words didn't work on Naruto, so Sasuke had to shove him back to the tree hard, hoping for Naruto to get his sense back.

Naruto opened his eyes.

Red.

Sasuke shoves again and Naruto hits his head on the tree, hard.

Again. Red eyes.

Sasuke kept repeating, hoping that Naruto's bright blue eyes would return.

In the end, Naruto completely stopped moving. His eyes stayed shut and his body limp against the tree.

Sasuke slowly let go of him, then looked at his own hands, realizing what he had done.

"A...a..," Sasuke stuttered.

He recalled Naruto's words.

_"Get away from me you f-cking monster!" That's what you would say wouldn't you! ...to injure it as much as possible so it won't stand up again..._

"No...I didn't mean..."  
Sasuke tried to get out the words but couldn't.  
Scared of what he had done, and not knowing what to do, Sasuke turned and started to run away from Naruto.  
Coincidentally, Naruto mildly awoke and opened his tiring heavy eyelids and saw Sasuke's behind, the figure getting smaller and smaller, away from him.

Naruto noticed Sasuke's blood red, wounded shoulder and vaguely remembered bits of what had happened.  
Biting into Sasuke, Sasuke's horrified face, Sasuke pushing him hard against the tree where he hit his head countless times...

Naruto reached to back of his head and found it was warm and wet from his own blood while recalling once again, the painful words from the past.  
_  
__"But you said...'you'll be my friend no matter what'"___

_"But I thought you were normal. A human. But you're not!"___

_"Yes, I am!"___

_"No! You're a monster! Don't come near me again!"_

Sasuke's horrified face came back into his mind, followed by the view of Sasuke running away with the wound.  
_  
__...Ah, Sasuke's afraid of me... just like others...__  
_  
A tear escaped from Naruto's now closed eyes and found its way down his cheek while his mind found its way back to the dark world of unconsciousness.

-  
Naruto stayed in his house for several weeks after that and didn't dare to step out of his door.

Iruka sensei came to visit Naruto a few times but Naruto never answered the door and instead, threw something at the door so that Iruka sensei would get the point that he wasn't welcome there.

Naruto was lying down on his couch, mentally and emotionally down with depression.  
Still Iruka sensei tried again and again to get Naruto to come to school.

Naruto repeated his answer each time the same way until one day; it wasn't Iruka sensei that had come to his front door.

A quiet knock came and Naruto threw a glass at the door from his couch.

Silence.

Naruto thought the person had left, when a voice came from behind his door.

"...Naruto."

A voice Naruto didn't want to hear.

The voice that made Naruto's heart feels as if it's going to rip apart.  
Naruto stuffed his head in his pillow and ignored him.

"Hey Naruto... its Sasuke," Sasuke said in a nervous tone," I'm going to open the door."

To that, Naruto threw another glass at the door as an answer for 'no', but Sasuke had already opened it and the glass hit the side of the opening door, colliding together, glass shards shooting at Sasuke's arm, with his quick reflex, held in front of his face.

The glass had smashed and trails of bright red blood trailed down Sasuke's contrasting pale arms with one gash on his cheek drawing a thin line of blood.

Naruto's face switched from anger to shock.  
Sasuke's face remained calm as he slowly lowered his injured arm.

Then in Naruto's mind, the sight of Sasuke pushing him against the tree flashed back and his face tightened.

"...what do you want?" Naruto asked, glaring.

"Come back to school. Everybody's worried," Sasuke replied which was given a straight quick answer.

"Liar!" Naruto yelled.

"Nobody is ever worried about me! I bet they're relieved that I'm not there! They're all afraid! That includes you too!"

"No, I d-"

"Liar! You're afraid of me! Don't deny it!"  
Naruto breathed deeply while Sasuke had no words to return.

Naruto walked over to Sasuke who looked uneasy.  
He reached a hand towards the shoulder where Sasuke had bandaged himself from the wound he got from Naruto.  
Automatically, Sasuke stepped away from Naruto's outstretched hand.  
When Naruto reached over, and touched it at the tip of his fingers, Sasuke closed his eyes tightly and flinched involuntarily.

When Sasuke heard Naruto let out a small laugh, he opened his eyes.  
Naruto saw fear in Sasuke's eyes and smirked weakly.  
He pushed Sasuke's chest softly but firmly, making him step backwards, out of his house.

"F-ck off..." Naruto said weakly and shut his front door on Sasuke's face, leaving Sasuke standing, staring at the door.  
The long silence was awkward, but at last Naruto heard footsteps walk away and he leaned on the door, sighing.

His back slid along the door to the bottom where he sat and closed his eyes.  
_  
__He ...didn't deny it in the end...___

_I was right..._

-

-


	10. Chapter 10:Words sting, words cling

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 10: Words sting, words cling. You know it.

The next day, Naruto went to school with a different attitude.  
An unusual high temper with a goofy grin, as if nothing in the world had happened when in reality, Naruto's mind had turned totally upside down and crashed into unearthly ruins.  
He was loud and was attracting everybody's attention towards himself with his all to numb his thoughts and beating his loudness in his voice over his mind to deafen the words that spoke to him. Everybody found him annoying and that seemed to be his goal, or anything that would distract him, even if that was a negative effect to him, at least he didn't have the worst which was him, himself beating his inner self till there's nothing left of him. He wanted to exist rather than wither away from self-destruction which was _so_ close to.

"_Everybody ohayo-ttebayo!_" Naruto shouted.

"Naruto! It's great to have you back here, but must you be so _loud?_" asked Iruka sensei as he entered the class as he covered his ears.

"Dattebayo, dattebayo~. This class is too quiet and _gloomy_," Naruto said, wavering his arms like a jellyfish and pulling a smug face.

This was when he first created his habit of saying 'dattebayo' and 'ttebayo' etc at the end of his sentences, to create a trademark that will be acknowledged as the words only Naruto uses so as anyone hears it, would know it's him talking.  
First it was weird, but as several days had passed, people got used to it and found themselves automatically saying 'shut up Naruto' every time he spoke aloud.

This was the only way Naruto could think of to keep himself busy from thinking about Sasuke, who he ignored at school. Stay loud and get grumbled and scowled at by people.

Sasuke found Naruto weird all long and couldn't help feeling that something was wrong with Naruto.  
He was beginning to sense that Naruto was breaking down inside. And truthfully, he was.

Weeks passed and Sasuke realized that Naruto wasn't eating at lunch.  
He got worried sick to the point that he felt like throwing up, but all he could do was watch Naruto from a distance since Naruto always avoided talking to Sasuke and never met his gaze.

Iruka sensei seemed to notice the same thing about Naruto and had asked about his health and appetite, but Naruto just told Iruka sensei that he wasn't hungry at lunch and that he always ate at home after school.

"Because you can't eat cup ramen at school -ttebayo, Iruka sensei!"  
That was a lie of course.  
As brightly as Naruto had said it, it was a colorfully fake.  
The truth was that whenever he ate something, he'd throw it back up so he didn't bother eating anymore.  
Naruto started to wear a black t-shirt -instead of his usual white- with an orange jacket over top, even on hot days and Sasuke figured that Naruto was hiding something and he needed to find out what. He was losing his patience of just standing back and watching him from afar.  
He didn't have the right to stay near Naruto anymore, he knew, but he didn't care how much he would get hated by Naruto. Sasuke was too worried to think about that and found it more important to find out what Naruto was hiding rather than care about how Naruto would think of him.

After school, Sasuke followed Naruto secretly and it seemed that Sasuke had picked the right day, for Naruto had tripped and landed on the hard ground. Sasuke ran to Naruto when he didn't stand back up. It was just like the first day they talked to each other.

"Naruto!" called Sasuke and squatted down to try and pull him up.

"F-ck off..." Naruto said with his face in the shadows, "I don't need help ...especially from a bastard like you!"

"It's only start of spring and I'm not going to leave you out in the cold like this. You'll catch a cold," Sasuke replied hastily, pulling Naruto's arm up.

"...who...would f-ckin care?" Naruto whispered.

"_I_ would! You need help and you're not asking for it. _Let me_," said getting rather annoyed at Naruto's stubbornness and tugged harder.

"_F-ck off!_" Naruto jerked away, and then fell onto the harsh ground again, scraping his cheek.  
But from there, Naruto didn't move the slightest.  
When Sasuke tugged again, Naruto didn't respond to it and Sasuke realized Naruto had fallen unconscious.

_This was bad._

Sasuke pulled Naruto up and set his hand on Naruto's forehead and found that it was burning.  
Panic rushing all over his body, he carried Naruto and sprinted all the way to his own house.  
It was way too easy for Sasuke to take Naruto back, since Naruto was so light.

_Too_ light.

_Naruto! You haven't been eating at all!_

-

Sasuke laid the unconscious Naruto -who had a blushed face with a high fever- on his own bed and took Naruto's jacket off.  
As Sasuke suspected and dreaded, Naruto's waist and arms were noticeably thin.  
Sasuke pulled the blankets up to Naruto's chin and brought a bucket full of water with a cloth where he dampened the cloth and put it on Naruto's forehead to cool him down, every now and then exchanging the cloth when it got warm.

Naruto's pained face told Sasuke that Naruto wasn't alright and that his head was thumping painfully.  
As Naruto started to pant harder and his temperature rising higher, Sasuke started to panic and tears swelled in his eyes for he could do nothing.  
Fear swept over him countless times as he bit his lower lip, holding the end of his t-shirt tight.

When Sasuke could no longer hold his fear, when realization crashed upon him that this wasn't a normal fever and that he wasn't able to help him by himself with only his help, he darted out the door and ran like he had never been before to Iruka sensei's house where Iruka sensei was dragged out of his house and to the front of the Konoha village hospital.

"_Please ask them to give us medicine!_" Sasuke cried at Iruka, who doesn't have a clue why he was brought here in the middle of the night and why Sasuke's tear-stained face was filled with fury and panic.

"Why? What happened?" Iruka asked Sasuke who was pulling down on both of Iruka sensei's sleeves.

"Naruto's dying! He needs medicine _but the nurses won't give me any!_" Sasuke shouted with tears flowing over the stained.

"...why wouldn't they give you any?" Iruka asked, trying to figure what Sasuke's on about with his mind still swirling and was trying to register what on earth was going on with his still half-asleep mind.  
But then it clicked, before Sasuke said it in words.

"Nobody wants to help him because he's a monster! Nobody wants to help a monster!_They won't let me!_"  
Iruka looked surprised at Sasuke's outburst as if he was unsure if Sasuke knew what he himself just said. But after a moment of staring at the little Uchiha, he saw that true to his words, he was truly meaning it.  
Iruka sensei's eyes soon turned soft and kind while his lips formed a smile.  
He patted Sasuke on the head.

"And you're helping that little monster, regardless of what he might do or become," said Iruka sensei.

Sasuke nodded, "He's the only person I have left..."

"Okay, I'll go get you medicine for Naruto," he said and jogged to the hospital.

At the gate of the hospital Iruka sensei heard Sasuke shout in a panic-filled voice," Hurry!"

The two ran back as fast as they could to Sasuke's house where Naruto was.  
As soon as they got there, Iruka sensei put the medicine pills into Naruto's mouth and made him swallow which Naruto threw up in a few seconds time.

He tried again with the spare pills and held a hand over Naruto's mouth to prevent Naruto from reflux again.  
When a few minutes passed with no sign of Naruto's stomach refusing the pills anymore, Iruka let go and quickly changed Naruto to a lighter and comfortable clothing which were Sasuke's spare clothes.  
Setting Naruto back in his bed, and the bed covers pulled up to his chin once again, Iruka wet the cloth and put it over Naruto's forehead.

Sasuke, all this time just stood back, and able to nothing but watch.  
He felt ashamed of himself for his helplessness.  
He looked down and shuffled his feet slightly while putting his hands behind his back.  
Iruka noticed this as he looked away from Naruto for the first time after reaching this house.  
He smiled and summoned Sasuke over with a wave of a hand.

Sasuke walked up to him where his wrist was taken by Iruka and was pulled under the blanket and on top of Naruto's right chest.  
Sasuke felt Naruto's heartbeat and slightly widened his eyes, surprised.  
Even though Naruto looked blushed and unwell, his heartbeat had returned to regular beating.  
Sasuke found himself let out a small sigh of relief.

"He'll be okay now," Iruka said quietly, "once he wakes up, give him a glass of water and something to eat. He might throw it back up but force him to keep eating little by little until he gets his appetite back. You will do that for me, won't you?"  
Sasuke nodded like a good boy, and watched Iruka sensei leave his door.  
He changed Naruto's damp cloth on his forehead which was now warm from Naruto's heat.  
Sasuke put the newly wet cloth, when Naruto flinched and started to talk in his sleep.

"..Don't ...don't Sasuke," Naruto whispered, scrunching his face.  
He was sleeping, but nevertheless Sasuke talked back.

"I'm just cooling down your forehead because you have a fever," Sasuke explained.

"..It hurts...you're hurting me Sasuke," Naruto started to pour tears from his closed eyelids.

"Huh?" Sasuke, feeling something's not right and that Naruto wasn't talking about the present, suddenly felt a rush of guilt.

"_Stop hitting me!_" Naruto suddenly cried aloud which seemed to be the exact moment when Sasuke remembered Naruto's terrifying bright red eyes which belonged to the monster inside him, alarming Sasuke's heart to the point that fear, shock and guilt all pumped through his veins and into his heart like an extremely high volt electric zap.

Sasuke now knew that Naruto wasn't talking about the present, but the past.  
It was the day when Sasuke saw Naruto, as a monster with those bright red and glaring eyes.

At that time, Sasuke only thought Naruto as a monster taking over his body.  
Not that the monster actually was Naruto. Sasuke was just desperate to get rid of those red eyes and bring Naruto's blue eyes back, trying to wake Naruto up from the monster's trance.  
He didn't know Naruto could see and feel when he had lost control over his body.

"Don't …run away, Sasuke," Naruto cried.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Sasuke said desperately, the only words Sasuke could think of right now.

"You ran away...,"Naruto demanded," but you promised... _You're a liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!_"

-

-

-


	11. Chapter 11: Hard situations

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 11: Hard situations are hard to unravel

___"Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!"_

"_NOOOOOOOO!_" Sasuke screamed as Naruto kept repeatedly shouting.  
Loosing strength to support himself, Sasuke's knees buckled and he fell to the floor.  
He blocked his ears, crouched down low on the ground and wept from fear as if Naruto's words were cursing Sasuke.

"_I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_" Sasuke screamed over Naruto's words and so loud that he didn't even realize Naruto had stopped.  
When Sasuke ran out of breath, he took a deep gulp of air which was when he heard Naruto's cracked, hoarse voice.

"...Sasuke?"

It seemed that Naruto had woken up by Sasuke's voice and had sat up on the bed, looking down at him. Sasuke gasped, looking frightened.  
Naruto's grave face was scarred with a pain-stricken look along with weariness that seemed to want to give up everything he had up to this point.

"Are you still...afraid of me?" Naruto asked, guessing from Sasuke's expression.  
Sasuke looked into Naruto's tired, solitary eyes.

Naruto was tired.

He was too tired to be treated this way, too tired to hear people screaming that he's a monster and to stay far away, too tired to bottle up and keep his emotion of sorrow and pain all inside.  
He just wanted to evaporate and disappear... once and for all. He knew it's what everybody all wished for.  
He didn't want to hear Sasuke's reply.

_Just leave me alone..._

Sasuke scrambled onto the bed and on Naruto's blanket covered legs so Sasuke was facing directly in front of Naruto.

"I'm not afraid," was Naruto's unexpected answer from Sasuke.

"Maybe a little... but not more than afraid to lose you," Sasuke answered truthfully.  
Naruto's face expression didn't change. He didn't know how to feel or react.

"...am I...allowed to believe that?" Naruto asked, wanting to believe it, but very much doubtful.

"Yes," was the clear, confident reply.  
And to that Naruto slowly leaned forward to Sasuke, face inches above a small scar where Naruto had previously bitten.  
Naruto was testing Sasuke's words.

Sasuke kept his mortified feelings within himself, tucked deeply enough so it won't over-power his courage of facing whatever outcome, even if he was to once again see those fearful, hellish red eyes that didn't belong to Naruto.  
He bit his lower lip and closed his eyes, determined not to cry out aloud or jerk away in fear or pain. He wasn't intending to lose something twice.

He waited for the pain...but it never came.

Naruto didn't bite into Sasuke's flesh, but instead licked the healed wound and then rested his chin on it, with a weak but happy smile all like a happy puppy wagging its tail.  
Both pair of small arms wrapped around each other as they both gave their forgiveness without words.  
Their bond of friendship started to form one of the strongest bonds in this world. Naruto's very first and very strongest bond he'd ever have.  
The only thing Naruto had ever wanted for the very first and last thing during his life.  
Forgiveness...and love...

3 days passed after Naruto's break down and recovery.  
He had been sleeping for the whole time after falling asleep in Sasuke's arms, while Sasuke stayed by his side, trying not to sleep and waiting for Naruto to wake up so the first thing Naruto see would be Sasuke and the first thing he would feel is reassurance though Sasuke had difficulty in staying awake for so long that he found himself nodding away, drifting off to sleep countless times.

Iruka sensei had come on the first day, after the incident and stayed for awhile, but resuming at school times, doing his job as a teacher.  
When Sasuke was alone with the silently sleeping Naruto, Sasuke felt lonely and held onto Naruto's hand, hoping to wake Naruto and see his bright blue eyes, cheerful smile and that voice of his again which always seemed to lighten Sasuke's feelings.

"Hurry up, Naruto... or I'll forget your voice..." Sasuke mumbled as he once again fell asleep that early morning, holding gently onto Naruto's hand.

The birds chirped in the bright morning and broke the spell to Naruto's deep sleep.  
When Naruto opened his eyes slowly, he let the blinding light reflect his blue eyes which were not looking as lively as it was before, before the incidents with Sasuke.  
Naruto found that he couldn't open his eyes to full extent from tiredness and lack of food.  
Sasuke had been pouring little amounts of water into Naruto's mouth every so often when Naruto was unconscious, which Naruto's body automatically let the clear liquid pass through his throat, so Naruto didn't find his throat that dry, but yet found himself reaching his hand towards his throat, finding something deeply wrong.

Sasuke, who was sitting on a hard chair, leaning over Naruto's body on Naruto's bed where is legs should be, woke up by Naruto's slight movement.

"Naruto!" Cried Sasuke when he flicked his eyes open wide and snapped out of drowsiness straight away, even though he lacked sleep over these past few days and as if to prove it, had bags under his eyes. Nevertheless, Sasuke hugged Naruto quickly, then plastered a worried look across his face while staring into Naruto's eyes which he missed so much of.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you want something?" Sasuke said all in a rush losing all coherent thoughts and let his mouth blabber whatever it wanted to ask.  
Looking at Naruto after calming himself mentally, he found Naruto holding his throat and got the panic back full force.

"Does your throat hurt? Do you need an inflammatory antidote? Or is it that you're thirsty? Do you want water?" Sasuke poured out while panicking and fluttering about, very evident before Naruto's eyes.  
Naruto gave a small, muted laugh.

Looking at Naruto's smile as he lowered his arm, Sasuke felt a little relieved and formed a smile to his lips as well.  
His body seemed to relax everywhere and his knees gave way.  
Naruto saw this and caught Sasuke's arms just in time with his weak hands, but enough to support Sasuke up.

"Thanks..."Sasuke shyly said as he climbed onto the bed, beside Naruto who gave a small laugh again.

A toneless laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked, with a blush forming across his face.  
Naruto shake his head as if to say 'nothing', the smile never leaving his lips.

"Naruto?" Sasuke's face crossed a queer expression, feeling something was off.

"...Are you really alright?"  
Naruto kept his smile while nodding.  
But there was something that really worried Sasuke.

"Naruto... _Why aren't you talking to me?_"

-

-


	12. Chapter 12:Small love

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_"Naruto... Why aren't you talking to me? "_

Chapter 12: Care for someone and a small love forms...

Naruto once again placed his hand on his throat as if feeling could make a difference.  
He rubbed and felt around his throat while he opened his mouth to test out his voice, yet nothing came out and feeling that nothing could be done to fix it, Naruto faced Sasuke and shook his head side to side.

"You can't... speak?" Sasuke asked fearfully and was replied with a simple nod, "..._why?_"

A shrug came from Naruto and before Sasuke was able to let out any more words from his mouth, someone at the door rapped, followed by the sound of the door being pushed open was heard as Iruka sensei came through the doorway to see how the little blond was doing.

"Ohayo Sasuke," Iruka sensei greeted warmly, then noticed Naruto had awoken from his short-period coma.  
"Ohayo to you too, Naruto, "Iruka sensei smiled greatly and said, "How are you feeling?"

Naruto mouthed 'okay', which lead Iruka sensei's face expression into a questioning look and seemed to notice Sasuke's worry-filled face for the first time.

"Naruto... lost his voice," Sasuke croaked, in the verge of him losing his voice as well from the shock.

"Oh, I see," Iruka sensei commented calmly, accompanied by his usual smile," don't worry. It's not a serious symptom. Sometimes this happens when a person experiences mental shock or depression. In most cases, it is up to the person to be able to get their own voices back. But Naruto here now has Sasuke by his side. He will regain his voice in no time."

This didn't soothe Sasuke at all. Instead, it made Sasuke worry more.

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Sasuke stated, more than asked. He threw himself onto Naruto and apologized for the fault and cause of Naruto's lost voice being his, while hugging him tightly.  
Naruto slowly raised his small arms to Sasuke's back and formed a small smile.

'_It's not Sasuke's fault_,' Naruto mouthed to Iruka sensei and shook his head before looking towards Sasuke's way which Iruka sensei understood what Naruto wanted to say.

"Naruto says it's not your fault, Sasuke," Iruka sensei passed on the message.

"But _I_ was the one who hurt Naruto... _I_made him be like this... _I_ Betrayed him... _I_broke the promise...," Sasuke blamed himself.

Naruto's brows furrowed. Iruka sensei took this notice and tried to help, making up for Naruto's loss of voice.

"Sasuke. You're being too hard on yourself. Don't let Naruto worry you now," said Iruka sensei.

To that, Sasuke let go and stared into Naruto's eyes with watery eyes which reflected Sasuke's unreadable expression, but Naruto nevertheless, smiled weakly at Sasuke who couldn't resist returning a small smile for Naruto's sake.  
With satisfaction, Iruka sensei nodded and left some groceries for the two before leaving for school to teach while leaving the two boys for them to sort out themselves.  
He wished the boys luck and let Sasuke take care of Naruto for the rest till he was up and well. Iruka sensei saluted the two before heading out with a smile.

-  
Sasuke pulled a packed okayu –Japanese porridge- out of the grocery bag Iruka sensei had brought and put it in the microwave to warm it up before taken to eat. He glanced at Naruto who waited patiently at his bed with a blank expression.  
Sasuke's guilt had grown inside himself again as his eyes downcast.

The high pitched 'ting' of the microwave called Sasuke back to Earth and announced that the heating was done to which he took the hot okayu to Naruto who shook his head, not wanting to eat anything.  
He didn't want to feel that bitter, gross and acidic taste again in his mouth and the burning of the throat.  
Sasuke frowned.

"Iruka sensei said you have to try and eat to get your appetite back," Sasuke explained tugging lightly on Naruto's sleeve while holding a spoonful of warm okay with the other.  
Naruto still resisted like a child who didn't want to take an injection at a hospital.  
Sasuke gave another pleading look, "please? For me?"

"..." Naruto couldn't shake his head to reject the promise, yet he didn't want to open his mouth either.  
Sasuke sighed, and then put the bowl aside along with the spoon.  
Naruto felt relieved but guilty at the same time.

But before Naruto mouthed a word of 'sorry', Sasuke leaned over and placed his soft small lips onto Naruto's. A charm his mother used to do to calm his worries and anxiousness.  
Naruto was taken by surprise and was so stunned he couldn't move while face was flushed with heat of embarrassment.  
When Sasuke parted with Naruto's, he rested his forehead against Naruto's burning forehead to match their body temperature.  
Sasuke frowned.

"See? You still have a bit of a fever. You can't gain back your health and strength if you don't eat," Sasuke said in a quiet voice, soft to Naruto's ears, making sure it didn't sound like a full-on lecture.

"I want to help you get well. ...please?" Sasuke tried again, mentally pleading that his charm had worked.  
Naruto, who was still blushing from the sweet kiss, was able to do nothing but stare into those dark black eyes of Sasuke's, as if he's being swallowed by it.

Sasuke moved back to his original position, giving up and started to slide his legs off the bed to leave when Naruto tugged on Sasuke's shirt.  
When Sasuke turned his head around, he saw Naruto open his mouth slightly as if accepting to eat. Sasuke smiled genuinely, and then brought the spoonful of okayu up to Naruto's mouth who reluctantly took that mouthful of warm food.

Naruto hesitantly swallowed, but as quickly as it went, it came back out and Naruto leaned over the side of the bed where he threw it up.  
Sasuke, expecting this, had reached for the glass of water and handed it to Naruto who drank the cool clear liquid, liking the ease of his throat being washed from the acidity and bitterness.

Sasuke's face became shadow-cast and gloomy, finding it hard to watch Naruto suffer like this and how he wished he could take over and be the one who's sick rather than Naruto. But he remembered Iruka sensei's words.

"_Once he wakes up, give him a glass of water and something to eat. He might throw it back up but force him to keep eating little by little until he gets his appetite back. You will do that for me, won't you?_"  
Naruto looked up at Sasuke with an unreadable expression, but Sasuke forced himself to smile.

"I know it's hard, but you're doing well. If you keep this up, you won't have to suffer like this anymore. It's only a short period of time so please bare it. I'm always here to help you," Sasuke said assuring Naruto.  
But no matter what words are given to Naruto, of course he doesn't like the burning throat and the sensation of vomiting. It wasn't something anyone would get used to doing even if it was for their own good and Naruto shifted his eyes away from Sasuke.  
Although Sasuke couldn't give up here and now since it was a promise made with Iruka sensei and it was up to him to assist Naruto's recovery and nurse him.  
He had taken the responsibility to take care of Naruto and he was going to do that no matter what it cost him.

"Okay. To be fair, from now on, I'll eat only as much as you will!" Sasuke announced to Naruto with determination glinting in his eyes to show how serious he was about this.

Naruto's clouded eyes that were very dull compared to his bright blue eyes, were showing a slight expression of shock as he found himself hard to express his feelings with his face. Nevertheless, Naruto shook his head countless times but Sasuke didn't back away on his words, even though his stomach growled which hadn't been filled since the night before last.

With Sasuke's stubbornness, Naruto was able to do nothing but to oblige and try to grow back his appetite, taking another spoonful, yet throwing it back up. But such thing didn't stop Naruto from trying as he somehow knew that it wasn't a good thing for Sasuke to stop having meals, even though this fact didn't clearly register in his mind but his actions rather was made from its own accord.  
Even if it was _his_ saying, Sasuke tried to stop Naruto eating as soon as he saw how ruthless Naruto was being and was trying to torture himself into eating and throwing it back up, but stubborn as Naruto was, he swayed out of Sasuke's grasp and kept the process, ignoring Sasuke's cries.

Naruto's effort wasn't stopped until he threw back his food with blood as he coughed up painfully, with tears in his eyes as he panted from loss of energy used up by the process.  
Sasuke saw this and screamed in fear which then seemed to stop Naruto.  
"_NARUTO, STOP!_" Sasuke screamed at the top of his lungs and when Naruto looked towards Sasuke's direction, he saw Sasuke's face splashed in tears, eyes open wide in fear and his body trembling from head to toe before Sasuke's head slumped down in relief that Naruto had stopped.

"Okay, I'll eat Naruto..." Sasuke murmured from his left over strength in his mouth, "I'll eat... so please... please stop..."

Naruto stared at Sasuke for what seemed like a long time until he found Sasuke's tear streaked face staring back again in fear. He smiled weakly and wiped Sasuke's tears for him.  
He picked the bowl full of okayu once again and the spoon with the other.  
After a second of panicking misunderstanding, Sasuke realized what Naruto was trying to do and he hesitantly opened his mouth shyly with a blush forming against his contrasting pale cheeks. Naruto placed the okayu filled spoon carefully into Sasuke's mouth whose blush grew more visible, but not noticing this, Naruto just gave a questioning look, as if to ask how it was.

Sasuke smiled and said, "Oishii."  
Naruto's lips curved into a small smile.

-  
Feeling drowsy from the exhaustion of using up energy, Naruto fell asleep again after Sasuke had his breakfast of okayu.  
Sasuke quickly swept up the floor, getting rid of the mess Naruto had made and washed the cutlery. Naruto opened an eye once, to see Sasuke's figure washing in the kitchen with his back towards him. He subconsciously smiled, seeing Sasuke was on his tip-toes from the kitchen sink being too high.  
He let his heavy eye lid cover his eye again and resumed to a dreamless sleep.

-  
When Naruto awoke from his light sleep, he found Sasuke staring at him who was crouching down on the ground.  
Naruto reached out his hand from under the blanket finding Sasuke's hand and Naruto then realized how cold Sasuke was as if he has become part of winter itself.  
He pulled in Sasuke, who Sasuke hesitated the action, blushingly but gave in in the end and slipped underneath the blanket with Naruto where it was warm.

Sasuke's body was so cold that Naruto couldn't help himself but to hug tight on him and warm him up with his own body temperature. Sasuke blushed even more but didn't turn away.

'_Why are you being nice to me?_' Naruto mouthed where Sasuke couldn't lip read and looked muddled.  
Seeing this, Naruto smiled lightly and shook his head before closing his eyes and resuming to his sleep.  
The last thing Naruto felt were cold arms wrapping around him before drifting away to his dreamless sleep, and the two stayed like that for what seemed like hours but only half an hour.

Sasuke's eyes snapped open suddenly with a jerk which wakes Naruto up as well. Sasuke slipped out of bed and quickly ran to get a pencil and paper while leaving Naruto somewhat cold and confused.  
When Sasuke came back and snuggled next to Naruto, he passed the paper and pencil into Naruto's hand.

"Write whatever you want to tell me here from now," Sasuke instructed. As soon as Naruto knew what he was to do, he wrote down what first came to his mind.

**A ri ga to u**

Sasuke gave a weird face expression which looked like something between a frown, crossed with a worried look and a smile...if that was possible.

"I didn't do anything for you though," Sasuke said," the only thing I've done is hurt your feelings, betray and break you down."

'_Break me down?_' Naruto mouthed.

**I'm fine****  
****It's only a fever**

"No, but _before__the fever," Sasuke pointed out who was met by a frown on the blond's face. Once again, the sound of scratching of the soft carbon-graphite against the paper filled the room.___

_**Why are you sorry? What happened? What went wrong?**_____

_Sasuke opened his mouth and closed it again with shock that couldn't let Sasuke form words.___

_"You remember...don't you?" Sasuke asked slowly, once he unbinded his tongue from shock, but Naruto shook his head.___

_**What did you do?**__Naruto scribbled down the page as Sasuke traced the words with his eyes.___

_He's forgotten...__Sasuke thought.__  
__He closed his eyes and thought to himself for a moment.___

_Why has he suddenly forgotten his memories? That's not like him at all... wait. Come to think of it, he's not acting his usual self either. He seems less depressed and more relaxed, less activating and keeps smiling... but not the smile I know. It somehow doesn't seem like the smile I know...why? Why?__  
__Then something clicked in Sasuke's mind and he opened his eyes. He stared at Naruto who questioningly looks at Sasuke with that smile.___

_I was right...__he thought as he saw Naruto giving Sasuke a genuine smile.__  
__His smile... is still the same... but...___

_But his eyes are ...blank___

_-___

_-_


	13. Chapter 13:Scarier than a nightmare

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_I was right..._he thought as he saw Naruto giving Sasuke a genuine smile.  
_His smile... is still the same... but...__  
__But his eyes are ..._blank

Chapter 13: Scarier than a nightmare

His eyes were blank as if they held no emotions, almost like a doll's.  
His expressions were limited by the absence of life reflecting in Naruto's eyes.  
Sasuke put his face in his hands and leaned down on the bed, hiding his tears as he couldn't stop himself from weeping with shaking shoulders.

Naruto looked down at him sadly with slight confusion not understanding why Sasuke suddenly burst out crying.  
He put a hand to Sasuke's shoulder for comfort while Sasuke felt that he lost something and the fault was his...  
That _he_ had erased something which had meant so much to him.

Naruto held his pencil and started scribbling on his paper.  
Sasuke heard the scratching of the pencil lead on paper and lifted his head, knowing that Naruto had written something for him.  
Sasuke took the paper in his shaking hands, trying to see the tiny words Naruto had written, much tinier than the other words he had written.  
His tears didn't help.  
It was making his vision blurry.  
He wiped them away and made out the words.

**Is my existence such a bad thing?**

This made Sasuke cry harder and embrace Naruto tightly.

"No, Naruto. Never," He shouted, "_never_ will your existence be a bad thing, especially to me. So don't ever think that again! I will... I will always be by your side even if the whole world goes against you... I promise! I promise! I promise!"  
Naruto smiled and hugged Sasuke back lovingly.  
Naruto loved Sasuke and he loved this warm feeling when hugging him. But he didn't have any thoughts of appreciation.

And he didn't stop to consider... what the warm feeling he was feeling... because this wasn't the love and bond they had created after all those events the two had experienced until now, but just merely Sasuke's body temperature seeping into Naruto's...

In the end, Sasuke had cried himself to sleep and Naruto lay him down, pulled over the blankets over themselves and cuddled up close to Sasuke, his natural instinct of positive thermotaxis creating his action.

Since Naruto already had enough sleep, he was wide awake and with those glassy eyes he presently had, he stared at Sasuke's pale face that streaked tear stains on his cheeks like a line of glue dried up.  
But since Sasuke had lacked sleep for days, he wasn't going to wake up any time soon just from Naruto's soft, careful touch. Naruto slid his fingers down Sasuke's soft cheeks and played with Sasuke's smooth, raven-black hair for a long time.

The present Naruto with no emotions...  
Somewhere deep inside...  
He still had a lingering feeling that he didn't realize he had kept, the longing for Sasuke...

-  
Sasuke woke up to see Naruto gone.  
Panic rushed down his body and his fingers started to feel numb. From where Sasuke sat up, he looked around the room, hoping to find something blond.

"..Naruto?" he called aimlessly which seemed to stick in the air.  
Silence answered.  
Sasuke tumbled out of the bed and started roaming around his whole house trying to find any traces of the blond.

When he thoroughly searched through the house and was finally convinced with his eyes that Naruto wasn't home, Sasuke rushed out of the front door at top speed, only to crash into someone.  
Sasuke blindly opened his eyes after the collision and realized that he was on top of somebody.  
And that _somebody_ was Naruto.  
Fortunately, the two boys didn't land on the ground as hard as they would have if it wasn't for the layer of snow covering every inch of the outside world.

"_Naruto!_" Sasuke cried and hugged him on the ground, "where were you? Why did you suddenly leave? You nearly gave me a heart attack! And you're still a patient! Your body's weak and you could have caught a cold! Or worse, hypothermia! And why are you wearing only a t-shirt? You should be freezing to death by now!"  
Sasuke hurriedly got off after his rant and realizing how cold Naruto must be lying on the cold white floor. When Sasuke let go, Naruto sat up and held out a little bunch of Neofinetia falcata (type of winter flowers) to Sasuke.

"You were picking these...for me?" Sasuke asked, breathless.  
Naruto nodded a reply with a vibrant smile and sent Sasuke crying again but Naruto didn't know what to do until Sasuke took the flowers and hugged Naruto strongly.  
Naruto hugged back, finding that Sasuke had appreciated the flowers.

They didn't know how long they were like that, but slowly, Naruto had drifted off to sleep so when Sasuke pulled off to say thanks, Naruto had his eyes closed and was dozing off into a dreamless sleep. He chuckled quietly, and then carried the feather-light body of Naruto's back into the house.  
From the lack of food and energy, Naruto was sleepy most of the time and so his little walk outside was enough to tire his body, nevertheless had set out to find something to cheer Sasuke.  
With one last look at Naruto who was sleeping beside him, Sasuke, who was sitting on the window side of the bed, looked out the window blankly as he recalled his dream.

_Flashback/Sasuke's dream___

_In the darkness, Sasuke spotted Naruto who was facing his back towards Sasuke in the distance.___

_"Naruto!" Sasuke called.__  
__Naruto turned and smiled at him with the smile Sasuke longed to see and the flashing blue eyes that were full of life, staring back at Sasuke.__  
__Sasuke felt his lips tug into a smile and walked over towards Naruto, but Naruto's eyes suddenly flashed red and Sasuke automatically froze on spot, his eyes wide with fear.___

_"LIAR! You're afraid of me! You betrayed me! You broke your promise!" Naruto suddenly shouted.__  
__Before Sasuke was able to say anything, he felt himself falling into a dark, endless pit.__  
__He screamed in terror and flailed his arms aimlessly, hoping to grab onto something but his effort being fruitless.___

_He didn't know what happened after that, but Sasuke had been unconscious somehow and was lying down on the ground of pitch darkness.__  
__He opened his eyes, and looked up where he felt a presence of someone.__  
__It was Naruto, crouching down alone.___

_"...Naruto?" Sasuke hesitantly called.__  
__Naruto looked up at Sasuke and smiled.__  
__His eyes were blank.__  
__Blank.__  
__No emotion held in those clouded blue eyes.___

_'Sa-su-ke,' he mouthed.___

_"You did this to him," a voice said. Sasuke turned to see a shadowed version of himself standing beside him with red, sharingan eyes which Sasuke himself yet had to master.___

_"No voice, no emotion. It's all because of you. You broke him down completely into an empty soul," the shadowed Sasuke told Sasuke, who was staring wide eyed from realization and looked at his hands which were all sticky and bloody.__  
__When he looked back up, Naruto was standing right in front of Sasuke, as good as dead with a blood splattered body but with bright blue eyes staring blankly to the side.__  
__When Sasuke's eyes focused on Naruto's chest, Naruto had a deep hole straight through to the other side, where his heart should be.__  
__That__was when he felt something warm, moving in his hand.__  
__Once again in mortification, Sasuke looked down at his hand.___

_And in his hand he held...__**Naruto's heart**__.___

_-___

_-___

_-_


	14. Chapter 14:Déjà vu

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 14: Déjà vu

_still flashback/Sasuke's dream continued__  
__The warm blooded heart thumped rhythmically in Sasuke's palm which he suddenly grasped and squeezed tight making it erratic and stretching the strong muscles between his crushing fingers to escape, with poor success, from the death grip his hand had with its own accord, Sasuke unable to stop his own movements.__  
__The Naruto in front of Sasuke coughed up large amounts of blood from his mouth which spilled on Sasuke who screamed as tears and hot blood, that didn't belong to him, dripping endlessly down his cheeks.___

_"NoOoOoOOOOO!" Sasuke screamed and closed his eyes tight as if to turn his back to reality and desperately hope in despair for this vision to be nothing but real to his world.__  
__As if obliging to Sasuke's ruthless plea, Naruto's body had disappeared the next time Sasuke opened his eyes and he saw Naruto in the distance again, but this time trying to catch a butterfly like an innocent toddler.__  
__Sasuke couldn't stop his tears from flowing down his cheeks in relief.__  
__His vision became blurry from his watery eyes but saw Naruto's figure running towards him.__  
__When Sasuke rubbed his eyes, he saw Naruto's toneless laugh with the blank eyes.__  
__Naruto reached for Sasuke's hand and pulled it underneath his white shirt.__  
__Sasuke didn't want to with the biggest feeling of uneasiness he'd ever felt, and he knew he was going to regret, but Naruto had a firm grip on his wrist and Sasuke couldn't pull back.__  
__He was forced to touch Naruto's stomach with his trembling fingers and slowly traveling his fingertips on the smooth, warm skin upwards to his chest.___

_"No...No! NO!" Sasuke pulled back pulled back with a sudden, extreme instinct inflicting upon him that was warning him to resist and pull back away from Naruto, but without success and closing his eyes tightly, he somehow knew what was coming next.___

_His fingers traveling to the right chest of Naruto's, until as Sasuke feared, there was nothing.__  
__It was the edge of the hole on Naruto's chest.___

_Sasuke felt his hand go through the chest and out the other side as Sasuke's arm got pulled in by Naruto until his whole arm was through.__  
__Naruto's white t-shirt wrinkled above Sasuke's arm and so from his chest downwards, Naruto's body was bare and Naruto pressed his bare body against Sasuke's body who then realize that he himself was bare without a top, and he felt Naruto's warmth seeping from Naruto's skin, then a hot, liquid-like feeling traveled down his body.___

_Sasuke fearfully, but not able to resist confirming, looked down and found his body bloody once again with Naruto's thick red blood, pouring endlessly from Naruto's chest which hadn't been moments before and Naruto's white shirt, brightly stained with blood that seemed to spread to cover the white in sick red each second.___

_Sasuke screamed while inside his head, the shadowed-Sasuke's voice ringed, "you did this to Naruto. It's entirely your fault. You lied to him. You betrayed him. You crushed his heart."___

_"…liar," Naruto rasped right beside Sasuke's ear, "liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…liar…"___

_"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! _" Sasuke cried in an ear-splitting scream until he opened his eyes and slowly he sensed familiarity with the surroundings as his teary eyes allowed himself to recognize that he was on his damp bed, damp from tears and sweat in late morning according to the sun which greeted Sasuke from a higher position than usual, looking down on Sasuke. Wiping his tears, Sasuke tried to find the first thing that was on his mind and realized to his horror that_he_was gone.___

_:end of flashback/Sasuke's dream:_

Sasuke felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see a worried Naruto, plastering furrowed brows showing Sasuke that he was worried with the streaming tears on Sasuke's cheeks to which Sasuke seemed to notice only after seeing Naruto, that he had been crying.

Naruto extended his arm and wiped Sasuke's cheeks for him before Sasuke was able to do it himself with his weak arms that hardly had any energy to move an inch anyway.  
Sasuke forced a weak, small smile for Naruto, who found it satisfactory and he himself smiled back.

Naruto stepped out of the bed but fell with a thump, losing his balance, finding the weight of his body much heavier for his legs to support than he had thought, and Sasuke's heart leaped for a second. But only a second was the time Naruto's blond hair disappeared from view since as quickly as fell, he stood up.

Sasuke let out a small, quiet laugh. He couldn't help but find this doll-like Naruto have the same dobe personality as the other he knew too well... and missed.

Naruto warmed up food and brought it to Sasuke and placed it in his hands, then sat in front of Sasuke and placed it in his hands and opened his mouth.  
A small chuckle escaped Sasuke's lips once again.

"You want me to feed you?" asked Sasuke, looking down at Naruto as if he was an eager puppy, waiting for food.  
Naruto nodded and Sasuke placed a teaspoonful of okayu into his mouth.  
With not much progression since yesterday, Naruto spewed it all up, just like last attempt.  
But Sasuke's eyes dubbed this image with Naruto coughing up blood like in his dream for a few seconds and his face changed color to paler than he already was.  
The shadowed-Sasuke's voice was heard inside his mind.

'_You did this to him_'

Naruto was panting and then faced Sasuke again, when he calmed down, with an open mouth but Sasuke shook his head doubling his moves from his shaking body.  
Naruto tried to take the spoon from Sasuke but Sasuke didn't let go.

"_NO!_"  
Naruto flinched by Sasuke's sudden outburst and shrunk back.  
Sasuke didn't look Naruto's way and his eyes hid behind his bangs as he looked terrified.  
Naruto put a hand to Sasuke's shaking shoulder which shook Sasuke out of trance and he looked up at Naruto who smiled and pulled Sasuke's hand underneath his shirt.  
Sasuke froze as one clear word struck his mind.

_Déjà vu_

Sasuke tried to pull back. Naruto's strength was weak and he nearly lost grip, but he used both his hands. Sasuke could have broken away, but the other part of him wanted to find out, to make sure a dream was a dream and reality was reality.  
He hesitantly let Naruto take over his shaking arm as he felt tears forming in his eyes.

Sasuke was shaking terribly while the routine was the same on Naruto's body.  
When Naruto slowly moved Sasuke's shaking hand upwards, Sasuke's tears rolled down his face, horrified to death.  
Naruto smiled and shifted it to the end where Sasuke felt Naruto's heart beating.

Somewhere inside, Sasuke felt relieved and felt his tense body relaxing.  
Naruto only did this show Sasuke that his heart beat wasn't irregular and he was breathing fine regardless of the vomits he had, and to assure he wasn't over exceeding himself.  
But to Sasuke it felt like Naruto told him more than that. _So_ much more.

Naruto hugged the crying Sasuke while Sasuke still had his hand under Naruto's shirt on top of his heart which was beating in constant, steady beat like it should.

When the tears subsided, Naruto opened his mouth again and waited to be fed.  
Sasuke fed Naruto okayu again and this time, nothing happened.

Happiness started resuming, seeping back softly to the two, forming the faintest, thinnest line of bond which Naruto doesn't know or feel. _Or at least… not at this point…_


	15. Chapter 15:Trigger something unwanted

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

Chapter 15: Trigger something unwanted

Sasuke tried to pull back. Naruto's strength was weak and he nearly lost grip, but he used both his hands instead. Sasuke could have broken away, but the other part of him wanted to find out, to make sure a dream was a dream and reality was reality.

He hesitantly let Naruto take over his shaking arm as he felt the tears forming in his eyes.  
Sasuke was shaking uncontrollably while the routine was the same on Naruto's body.  
When Naruto slowly moved Sasuke's shaking hand upwards, Sasuke's tears rolled down his face, scared to death.  
Naruto smiled and shifted it to the end where Sasuke felt... Naruto's heart beating.

Somewhere within himself, Sasuke felt all the tenseness in his body become undone, and his tightly wrapped heart, with strings called fear snapped off for him to breathe again.  
Naruto did this to tell Sasuke that his vomiting didn't affect his heart and that he wasn't about to choke and die, but to Sasuke it felt like Naruto told him more than that.  
Reassurance that it isn't Sasuke's fault, that he's not breaking or killing Naruto, or worse, giving him hell by making him the living dead.  
Naruto hugged the crying Sasuke while Sasuke still had his hand under Naruto's shirt on top of his heart which was warmly beating in constant repetition.

When the tears subsided, Naruto opened his mouth like a puppy and waited to be fed. Sasuke fed Naruto okayu again and this time, nothing happened.  
Happiness started resuming, seeping back softly to the two, forming the faintest, thinnest line of bond which Naruto doesn't know or feel.  
_Or at least… not at this point…_

-  
Having to be able to eat, Naruto had a little more strength than before and chose to go out to town with Sasuke.

"Oh, it's you two," said Iruka sensei as the two young boys turned a corner of the Konoha village.  
Today was Saturday and there was no school so Iruka had been roaming about freely. He saw Naruto's eyes and frowned.

"Naruto's not his usual self yet, is he?" Stated Iruka sensei more than asked.  
Sasuke looked down, knowing that it is his fault for Naruto being like this.

"Not swearing anymore are you though, Naruto?" Iruka sensei asked, smiling.  
Naruto gave Iruka a questioning smile, not truly understanding Iruka sensei's words.  
Iruka patted Sasuke's head, an indication for a job well done.  
Sasuke looked up at his sensei and gave a very small smile, Iruka still yet so convincing.  
And then, Iruka then patted Naruto's head.

"Trust your instincts, okay? I'm sure you'll get through all this," once again, Naruto didn't get what Iruka sensei meant, but nevertheless nodded with a broad smile with opposing faint eyes, giving him an overall facial expression of a weak determination. But Iruka let that slide, for now.

"Good. Then today I will treat you," Iruka sensei exclaimed and took the two boys to a dango ya.

"Um… I don't like sweet things, sensei," murmured Sasuke quietly when Iruka sensei asked what the boys would like to eat.  
Iruka sensei frowned.

"You don't?" Iruka sensei said, "That's unusual for a small kid like you. Okay then, let's go to the Ichiraku ramen ya then."  
And so they went.

Sitting at the bench, waiting for their ramen, Naruto looked up at Iruka sensei with a questioning look. Naruto dug into his little bag that swung over his shoulder across his chest, and pulled out a little note book Sasuke had given him previously, before setting off outside. He scribbled something onto it where Iruka sensei and Sasuke on either side of Naruto leaned and peered over to see what Naruto had written.

**I think I've been here with Iruka sensei before** it said.

As soon as Naruto had finished his sentence, the two read the line quietly while Naruto suddenly heard a buzzing noise which he couldn't make out at first. But it was something he didn't want to hear. The memory seemed to almost trigger something which Naruto feared and he felt that through his bone-chilling shiver. He clutched his head and trembled as tears came to his eyes.

_'You're… not-… about me …sensei…, …-worried… a-… Sasuke…-'_

Sasuke's touch on Naruto's shoulder brought Naruto back to earth and he finally faced what his teary eyes made in front of him. Sasuke, who seemed to be talking to him, had a desperate, panicking face, but Naruto couldn't hear those frantic sounds he was making as if his whole world went mute.

"…y …o-ay …to …Naruto! Are you okay?" Naruto finally heard Sasuke say after awhile when Naruto's senses seem to have resumed.

Naruto didn't have time to reply. The ramen came, one for Iruka sensei and one for Sasuke.  
Sasuke wiped Naruto's tears, and then faced the front where he took an extra bowl and put a little amount of his ramen into it to give to Naruto since Naruto can only eat a little, thinking it was best to eat first and calm Naruto's feelings down with good, warm food.  
Naruto ate from his little bowl and smiled to Sasuke to say it was good, although 'good' to Naruto meant it was warm, not that it tasted good because he only still had a few senses activating within his body right now.

In Naruto's mind that day, the voice he heard repeated over and over making Naruto almost sick and frightened.

That night, Naruto had a dream. A bad dream which he forgot as soon as he woke up but shook him violently. He was woken up by Sasuke's voice reaching his ears.

"…ar …aruto …Naruto…_Naruto_!" Sasuke shouted.  
Naruto's eyes widened and he sat bolt upright, shivering. He was sweating and he had tears in his eyes.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Naruto? Hey, Naruto," Sasuke went on, but stopped when Naruto's lips moved to form words and Sasuke thought he knew what Naruto had just said because it seemed simple enough, and heart-stricken as he felt his blood freeze.  
It seemed to Sasuke that Naruto had just said:

Yo bu na  
(Don't call my name)


	16. Chapter 16:Hard choices and decisions

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_Yo bu na_

Chapter 16:Hard choices and decisions

Naruto's lips moved to form words and Sasuke thought he knew what Naruto had just said because it seemed simple enough, and heart-stricken as he felt his blood freeze.  
And Sasuke was most certain that he was right when he saw Naruto cover his ears and shut his eyes tightly. At Sasuke's touch, Naruto jerked and mouthed a word of 'no!' as his eyes flashed open.

Sasuke swore to himself that he saw Naruto's brilliant blue eyes, full of life; flash for a fraction of a second, but at the blink of an eye, Sasuke was staring at Naruto's blank eyes again with a scared look plastered on his face.

Sasuke's eyes changed from shock to sadness as he realized Naruto was shaking from fear.  
And without a word, Sasuke left the room leaving Naruto's heart thump in panic.  
Not only the present Naruto, but somewhere deep inside, the real Naruto panicked as well and the bottom of his heart where his true emotions should be, in the dark black emptiness, a flash of light of Naruto's true emotion flickered to life.

Sasuke came back with two warm mugs of hot chocolate in his hands, and only then was Naruto able to stop panicking.  
Sasuke lifted his eyes off the mug to see Naruto and saw his panicked face and smiled at him. His eyes shifted back down on the mug, trying not to spill the contents on the way.  
Naruto was given his half-full mug and he cupped his hands around it.  
He stared down at the rich-brown liquid blankly while his face expression showed uneasiness.

"Drink it. It'll calm your nerves and make you feel relaxed," Sasuke said, drinking a sip of his own, full mug.  
Naruto drank a small mouthful, and then finding that he liked this feeling of the sweet liquid running down his throat, and calming warmth spreading through his body, he drank the whole lot in a second.

"Wow… I thought you won't be able to drink much… but that was fast. Can you drink normally now, other than water? Do you want some more? I'll give you mine," Sasuke exclaimed excitedly, happy to see Naruto's improvement of his appetite.  
Although when Sasuke held out his mug to Naruto, he looked uneasily at Sasuke with guilt from his previous actions.

"If you're worried about what you said earlier, don't worry about it… I'm not worried about it, okay?" Sasuke murmured softly, "I know you're having a hard time. You can get mad at me sometimes, you can cry sometimes. But I'll never leave your side or hate you."  
A tear dropped from Naruto's eye.  
Sasuke gave a warm smile and he reached over to wipe that tear away.

"I don't think you remember, but as I've said before, 'No matter what happens… I'll be your friend…'"  
Naruto gave a confused look at Sasuke, not recalling such phrase. Sasuke sighed, knowing Naruto doesn't remember.

"And the one you won't know which I said is 'I'll promise… I'll be by your side forever. No matter what'," Sasuke's eyes widened as he repeated these words, "'don't worry. Don't feel so isolated anymore…'"  
Naruto had mouthed the words with Sasuke after Sasuke's words of 'I'll promise…'  
Sasuke knew Naruto was mouthing the exact same words at the same time by reading Naruto's lip movement.

"Why… do you know that?" Sasuke gasped, because he was sure that Naruto was asleep when he had said this to him, but was only replied with a questioned expression.  
Naruto looked down at his empty mug, still showing Sasuke that he was feeling uneasy. He noticed that Sasuke was carefully choosing his words to avoid saying his name and Naruto felt guilty for that.  
Not knowing Naruto's thoughts, Sasuke just smiled and switched mugs.

"Drink it. It's not as sweet like yours, but it's still warm," Sasuke said, since Sasuke had put sugar only into Naruto's and he didn't know Naruto's taste buds weren't functioning as they should be, right now. Naruto slowly put his lips to the mug as he looked at him.  
But all the same, Naruto loved the warmth he felt when the warm liquid passed through his throat and entered his inner body, gaining heat and comfort.  
When Naruto drank from the mug, Sasuke smiled again.

Naruto finished drinking and snuck back in bed while Sasuke went to put away the mugs with a cheerful look on his face.  
Silence dawned upon Naruto who was left alone in the room and he didn't like it.  
He got up and pulled out his note book from his bag and wrote without thinking.

**You're not-about me sensei-worried-a- Sasuke******

**I'll promise I'll be your side forever. No matter what. Don't worry. Don't feel so isolated anymore**

As he wrote this down, Naruto started to feel sick.  
Something gurgled inside Naruto and for a second, and he felt like he was drowning. He felt that something didn't want to come out from deep inside him.  
As if he prodded on something dangerous…  
Naruto started writing again.

**I think I'm not myself.**

I think the Naruto I am isn't the Naruto I used to be.  
I have many blank memories of the past.  
Sasuke is being nice to me, but I keep on making him cry.  
I think Sasuke wants my other self back.  
Not me.  
Maybe my existence really is a bad thing.  
But somehow, I think my other self doesn't want to come back.  
I don't know what to do.  
I'm scared.

Sasuke read it twice.  
He turned his head around and looked towards Naruto, sleeping soundlessly on the bed next to where Sasuke was sitting.

_Even this Naruto is feeling isolated…_

Sasuke didn't know what to do either. He looked at the curtain less window, where the rain pattered quietly.  
The sky outside was onyx coloured and helped Sasuke's reflection reflect back strongly, making the window turn into a mirror.  
The reflected Sasuke, Sasuke noticed, wasn't sharing the same expression as him and he knew he had seen him before from somewhere.

"You did this to him, "the reflection accused and instantly Sasuke knew who he was. It was the _other_Sasuke from his dream.

"'He doesn't want to come back' it said. But he knows that's gonna crush your heart. And from that, the Naruto now is getting crushed. It seems like this Naruto has his own feelings and thoughts, different from the real Naruto. And this is all because of you."

"What should I do?" Sasuke whispered at his reflection.

"It's what _you_ want to do. You have to choose which Naruto you want."

"But both are the same Naruto, aren't they?"

"So you're okay with having _this_ Naruto?"

"…no… I want the_real_ Naruto…" Sasuke disagreed before he knew what he was going to think or say and his memories flashed before his eyes of the fun times with Naruto with the flashing blue eyes and bright smile which Sasuke longed to see, joking around and more lively and sometimes stupid.

Sasuke suddenly missed so badly of those days and that Naruto that his eyes started to blur away his reflection. His tears fell and lined with his jaw line till it dropped onto his small hands.

"I want Naruto back…"


	17. Chapter 17:Desires of their own

_"I want Naruto back…" Sasuke said, in a quivering voice.__  
_  
Chapter 17: Desires of their own

Naruto moved his head around in his sleep, facing away from Sasuke.  
And what Sasuke doesn't know was that Naruto was crying silent tears.  
Naruto didn't want Sasuke to see his tears, to know that he was listening over Sasuke's conversation alone.

_"But that Naruto you want doesn't want to come back...__  
__He ran away from pain that you keep giving him...__  
__If you bring him back, there is no insurance that you are going to bring him happiness...__  
__Bringing him back may only make things more painful for him and be the exact opposite of the happiness Naruto wants...__  
__Nothing will change from the situation from before this and you will in no doubt, hurt him again...__  
__The only thing you will do is give him what he doesn't desire because that is the reason he ran away in the first place...__  
__Being with you pained his heart and brought up the emotion of 'afraid' since he doesn't know when you will turn him down again which is a possible thing you might do since you've already done it once after giving a strong promise which meant to him a lot, and breaking that promise as easily as it was done...__  
__Knowing all that, would you still try and bring him back?__  
__Knowing that, would you still have the courage and confidence to bring back the happiness which he once had with you and to pay the price of what you have done to Naruto's feelings?"_

It was all too hard for Sasuke to figure, to take it all in, or to stop tears from flowing down his cheeks.  
The decision put on him was too complicated.

"Wishing for Naruto to come back… is that too selfish?"  
Silence answered him. The window only reflected Sasuke's tearful face which imitated Sasuke in every way.  
The logical Sasuke from his dream wasn't there anymore as if abandoning Sasuke in the whirl of confusion.  
He turned his head around to Naruto and patted Naruto's head, then lay beside him with his hands holding onto Naruto's shoulders tight. Sasuke buried his head against Naruto's back and sobbed silently.

"Is it too selfish of me for wanting you back so badly, Naruto?" Sasuke whispered before he had cried himself to sleep.  
Naruto opened his eyes slowly and wiped his tears as he heard Sasuke's silent, soft breathing which told Naruto that Sasuke was asleep. He sat up and looked around at Sasuke who had tear stains on his cheeks.  
Naruto's eyes saddened and wiped Sasuke's tear stains away ever so delicately with his hands which no longer seemed like his own.

For the first time, he felt the cold, hard floor with his bare feet which collected the freezing coldness each step, as he moved away from the bed.  
For the first time, he found how harsh the cold air and atmosphere in the room was without Sasuke's embrace.  
He wanted it back very badly.  
But the Naruto right now wasn't the Naruto from before and wasn't the one who Sasuke wanted back.

Naruto recalled Sasuke's words.  
_  
__'What should I do?__  
__But both are Naruto aren't they?__  
__No… I want Naruto back…__  
__Wishing for Naruto to come back… is that too selfish?__  
__Is it too selfish of me for wanting you back so badly, Naruto?'_

Tears filled to the brim of Naruto's eyes.  
Of course Naruto couldn't hear the other Sasuke talking.  
That Sasuke was from Sasuke's mind, only existing within Sasuke. So listening to only one side of Sasuke, Naruto didn't know what Sasuke was thinking.  
But he felt he knew how Sasuke felt as he reached to touch his own chest, where his heart should be.

"No… it's not selfish," Naruto said quietly in a cracked voice as if it hadn't been used for decades,

"but… it's selfish of me to want you Sasuke… when you don't even want me…"  
Holding back tears, Naruto forced himself to write in his notebook: an explanation of his thoughts, and  
a word of goodbye…  
Deep down inside Naruto, who walked out of the house silently to the wet onyx world outside, a voice rang, which was beyond this Naruto's ears to be heard.

"This Naruto is starting to have emotions and thoughts of its own… He even managed to talk with his voice."

"…" Another seemed to be present there but didn't reply.

"Do you want me to provide another emotionless Naruto in exchange for this?"  
This low, booming voice belonged to the Kyuubi.

"No… just let him be…" the other voice answered.  
It was the real Naruto.

Plunged deep into the darkness, Naruto crouched down low in the wet cavern, behind the bars of the sea with the orange-red flaming Kyuubi with huge red eyes looking down at him.

"He's heading away from the Uchiha. Are you going to let him suffer from your death?"

"…the only last thing I wanted was forgiveness from Sasuke. That's only the greatest credit I could gain from him and I want to end it that way. I don't want to get hurt again by Sasuke anymore…and this Naruto... he's too unemotional to think about killing himself," Naruto said, narrowing his eyes and gripping tighter on his folded arms.

"He's done it once… he might do it again… if this was someone else, it wouldn't hurt as much, but from Sasuke, I don't want to endure the pain I received from him ever again…"

"Very well. Let's keep this Naruto, the way he is... But I must say, you are..._very weak_"  
'Very weak' echoed a few times before the Kyuubi disappeared, leaving Naruto bury his head in his arms and sulk in the darkness.

**The Naruto you want doesn't seem to want to come out.****  
****If I am with you, you will keep your hopes up or feel hurt every time you're with me, so I can't stay with you anymore.**

**Sorry**

**Bye**


	18. Chapter 18:Crushed

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_**The Naruto you want doesn't seem to want to come out.**__**  
**__**If I am with you, you will keep your hopes up or feel hurt every time you're with me, so I can't stay with you anymore.**__**  
**__**Sorry**__**  
**__**Bye**_

Chapter 18: Crushed

"No…" Sasuke whispered, his hands shaking while gripping tightly on the notebook so he wouldn't drop it, his legs daring to loosen the muscles supporting him up.  
This couldn't be happening. He was just mourning about how he lost his true Naruto. If he lost this Naruto as well, what was left of him?

Nothing...  
_Absolutely nothing._

"NO!"  
Sasuke dashed out of his house and ran out onto the wet streets, shining from the light of dawn, running as fast as his legs could take him.

Not long after searching, Sasuke bumped into a tall man at a corner and fell down hard on the ground. Sasuke picked himself up, without looking up at who he bumped into, and mumbled an apology before_trying_ to walk past the man, but that man was stopping Sasuke from walking away by getting hold on the scruff of Sasuke's neck.

"_Hold_ it, Sasuke."  
Sasuke looked up surprised.

"Iruka sensei!" Sasuke cried and tears swelled in his eyes.

"You're looking for Naruto?" Iruka sensei asked, smiling.

Sasuke gasped and gripped on Iruka's sleeve.

"Do you know where he is?" Sasuke asked in a panic-filled voice, but with a slight tone of hope.

"He's at my house," Iruka sensei replied, but frowned a little, "have you two had a fight or something? Naruto looked pretty upset."

"Eh?" Sasuke whispered as panic jolted up his spine.  
He followed Iruka sensei to his house with a constant fast-rate heartbeat, becoming half restless as he tried to think of what he may have done wrong to make Naruto abandon Sasuke and run away.  
He felt guilty for thinking he wanted the real Naruto back and was scared of this Naruto hating him for that or worse, never coming back to his side.

_Was that it? Did this Naruto know what he wanted? No...Overheard?_  
His face became paler at the thought as he remembered what he had said the previous night before crying himself to sleep, the conversation with the other Sasuke.

_No he can't have heard... he can't! He can't! He can't!_  
Sasuke's heart overfilled with panic and all his blood ran cold while his fingers grew numb.  
Naruto was in a bed, pulling the blankets over his head and hiding from everything.

"Naruto, Sasuke's here," Iruka sensei said.  
To this, Sasuke saw Naruto grip tighter onto the blankets as if to make sure that no one can ever get through to him, not even the tiniest creature.

_It's my entire fault... again..._  
Seeing this, Sasuke lowered his head and body down to the ground where silent tears and trembling over took him. Sasuke couldn't think of any words to apologize to Naruto and he couldn't even call his name because Naruto's words of 'yobuna' impacted so strongly into Sasuke's mind. He knew that just a word of 'sorry' wasn't even nearly enough.  
As Sasuke feared, Naruto had gone far away from Sasuke in every way except the fact that Naruto was only 3m away from Sasuke. It was too hard for Sasuke to describe how he felt at that moment. His heartstrings threatened to rip apart within him.

Iruka sensei's voice no longer reached Sasuke. No more sound reached his ears. He couldn't even feel the ground anymore and see any light pass through his tightly shut eyes which only let tears pass out even though it was bright midday. He gritted his teeth, trying to withstand the pain in his heart, but it hurt... it hurt _so much_.

Naruto doesn't see this and he doesn't know what was going on but he knew that if he looked or stepped to the outside world, he would get hurt again so he didn't dare let go of the blanket, even though his hands were starting to turn white from his strong grip and was tiring out, becoming sore.

Iruka sensei had to pull up Sasuke and guide him away from the room and to the living room where he was given a warmed up milk to calm his nerves and body. But Sasuke couldn't find a way to stop crying. He felt the sensation of fear being all alone come back again like a rush of unstoppable 10m waves rushing upon him, just like when Itachi had killed all his relatives including his mother and father.

_I'm all alone again... all alone..._

At night, Sasuke was sitting on a windowsill with his head buried in his arms and was streaming tears like he's forgotten how to stop himself from crying.  
Beside him was a small table with a warm drink which Sasuke hadn't touched, but yet had it pre-warmed a couple of times.  
Naruto had the same supply which he took by slipping an arm out of the blanket and taking the cup underneath the blanket where Naruto drank quietly.  
Every so often, his eyes flickered back to the real Naruto which the present Naruto didn't notice or feel.  
On both Naruto's minds, one quote echoed repeatedly.

_You are weak…_  
By the third day, Sasuke didn't even respond to Iruka sensei and sat in the same position since two days ago. Tear stains are on his face, his eyes blank as if they hold no wish or hope. Just motionless like a doll who had given up the wish to become human from knowing the impossibility and who had fallen in despair or an angel turned to glass as a punishment from sinful actions.

_This isn't good…_Iruka sensei thought, and went to the bedroom where Naruto was, who still refused to take a step to the outside world.

"Don't you care about Sasuke anymore?" Iruka sense asked Naruto, standing at the doorway. Iruka sensei's long shadow nearly reached Naruto's bed, lingering there as if the shadow was tempting to slip under the covers.

"…" Naruto didn't want to answer.  
Of course he cared about Sasuke! Of course he wanted to see him! But that would only hurt Sasuke even more, and Iruka sensei would never understand that, or understand how he feels at that moment.  
Iruka sensei opened his mouth to speak again when a loud shout of 'No!' and a crash was heard from the living room.

Naruto sat up and stared at the doorway where Iruka sensei had been standing moments ago.

Iruka sensei had run to Sasuke who was drowning in rage and fear.  
He had a chair in his hands as he threw it at a window, another sound of impact and shattering glass.

_Naruto_ feared what has become of Sasuke and forced himself off the bed and to walk out of the door with his own legs which was weak and trembling, barely holding up his body from fear.  
His brilliant blue eyes flashed in the dark room, where he was hiding. He heard Sasuke scream.

"_Go away!_" Sasuke shouted while Iruka sensei repeatedly shouted Sasuke's name which didn't reach Sasuke's ears.

"You're wrong! You're wrong!" Sasuke's shout became louder in Naruto's ears as he kept moving a step closer to the living room.  
But suddenly he stopped. His legs didn't move.  
Only one step away to Sasuke, yet his legs froze on spot, rooted to the ground.

_You are very weak..._

Naruto's emotions and mind had pulled them back, hesitating to see Sasuke. Naruto stood still, afraid and thought of letting the glassy-eyed Naruto take over from here, but the real Naruto was the most concerned, worried, and wanted to see Sasuke.

_You are very weak..._

But that was only a part of him. The other part of him didn't want to see Sasuke. Naruto didn't want to get hurt again. Especially since Sasuke was the very first person to be able to call a 'friend' and to get betrayed by that_friend_, get hurt, and be separated again, he couldn't endure. It was better off as how Naruto had left it when he was forgiven by Sasuke and he had forgiven him as well.

_You are very weak..._

Sasuke wasn't thinking and wasn't sensing anything. He just sat there with no thoughts or emotions. Just merely breathing... existing...But suddenly his reflection on the window moved which caught Sasuke's attention.  
It was the_other_ Sasuke. He was here...

"I _told_ you 'you'd crushed his heart'," he said, smirking.  
Here again to once again stab at Sasuke's wounds and twist them cruelly, widening the wounds so they bled again.

"No… I didn-," Sasuke whispered a denial but choked on his words, not getting to finish his sentence. Visions of his previous dreams flash before his eyes and even if he knew that all those visions weren't real and he hadn't crushed Naruto's heart literally, he couldn't completely deny that everything that has happened to Naruto so far was his entire fault.

"It's your entire fault. You broke your promise. You betrayed him. Yo-"

"NO!" Sasuke screamed and smashed his mug at the window which reflected himself who was smirking. The mug shattered and the contents spilled on the window, covering the reflection. But the white liquid fell down quickly, giving paths for the reflected Sasuke to return with that smirking face which Sasuke despised and feared. As the reflection came back, Sasuke heard it speak again which echoed in his mind loudly.

"_It's your entire fault. You lied. You crushed his heart._"

Sasuke screamed in fear and panic; he smacked the chair beside him, making the weak window shatter. Sasuke panted while tears strained his cheeks but he still heard the echoing voice and he looked around and saw his reflection on the mirror, hanging on the wall. He threw what he could find at it making another heavy sound of cracking, followed by the shingles of shattered glass parts falling to the wooden floor.

Before Sasuke was able to destroy any other ornaments or glass in this house, Iruka sensei came rushing in and held Sasuke who squirmed and shouted, trying to get away from Iruka's grip and from the echoing voice at the same time with fruitless effort, until one voice reached his ear, stopping everything that ran through Sasuke: his screaming voice, the echoes, his body, his veins, his mind, his breath, his heart…

"_Sasuke…_"


	19. Chapter 19:Mirror only reflects me

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_"Sasuke..."_

Chapter 19: Find yourself a mirror, and you will be there

The whole room went silent and Sasuke became motionless as he froze to the core.  
His eyes wider than a surprise that was far believable than the current situation he was in right now.  
Hesitantly, Sasuke slowly turned around towards where the voice had come from after slowly pushing his blood through his veins again to allow him to give that much of a small movement so he could confirm what he couldn't believe, just with his ears, but even as he turned around and saw it clear as daylight, he still couldn't believe it.

There, standing in the doorway, was who Sasuke longed for, for more than anything in his world, was the sun-bright blond hair with a pair of sky blue orbs underneath, looking straight at the dark-night, raven figure, small and almost limp in Iruka's arms.

Sasuke's daylight stood there with his guilty, fearful expression but with the mist cleared up in his eyes, showing those blue crystals that he had kept hidden for awhile, enough to make the little raven swirl around in a pool of emotions till he was sick.

Sasuke opened his mouth intentionally, but without thinking.  
So as if on second thought, he closed his mouth again, as if he was being pulled back by an invisible force.  
Instead, he looked down as if he was sorting out, with his current scrambled mind, on choosing his words carefully.

"I'm sorry...," was all Sasuke could mumble after his minute thought," I'm really sorry..."  
Iruka sensei saw that Sasuke wasn't going to lose control again, and he let Sasuke go slowly where Sasuke crumpled to the floor from his legs giving in.  
Iruka allowed himself to step back to get out of the way while Naruto walked towards Sasuke slowly, and then crouched down before him, never leaving his eyes off Sasuke's.  
But Sasuke's eyes left Naruto's as he felt the shame for not being able to do anything for him, but bring trouble.

"Why are _you_ sorry?" Naruto said and Sasuke's chin was lifted up by Naruto's soft, gentle fingers to allow Sasuke to look up at him once more, "I should be the one to say sorry..."  
Sasuke felt his eyes prickle with hot tears and he turned away to hide his tears. Sasuke opened his mouth and tried to say something again but closed his mouth before any words came out from them, changing his mind with split-second reactions.  
Naruto formed a small smile at this and said what Sasuke longed to hear.

"Sasuke... yo n de?" (Call me, Sasuke)  
The tears couldn't hold any longer and it fell, rolling down Sasuke's cheeks as his face started to show the desperate emotion of wanting to cry aloud.  
Sasuke leaned hard onto Naruto's chest and held strongly onto Naruto's sleeves while letting out those tears that just kept falling and falling, creating dark, wet stains on Naruto's shirt and Naruto just wrapped Sasuke into a gentle hug.

"...to," Sasuke voice cracked in between his uncontrollable sobs, "...ruto,...naruto...Naruto, _Naruto-!_"  
Iruka sensei smiled at the two boys and without a word, he patted the two boys' heads and went of to make hot drinks.

"Sasuke...," Naruto said after awhile when Sasuke's tears subsided, but Sasuke didn't respond. Naruto looked down to see that Sasuke had fallen asleep from physical and mental exhaustion which had Naruto let a small laugh escape from his lips. He wiped Sasuke's tears and hugged him.

_It's not surprising...He probably couldn't sleep at all since I left him..._Naruto thought.

"I'm really sorry, Sasuke..."

-

Sasuke got put into bed by Iruka sensei.  
Iruka sensei sighed as he sat down on a chair in the living room opposite Naruto, and they had a hot drink in silence before they both set off to bed.

After awhile, Naruto had something bothering him that kept him awake and he couldn't go to sleep because of it, even after settling in bed. He heard shingles of glass as the glass fragments were being collected, and so he knew Iruka sensei was still out in the living room, cleaning the ruins which Sasuke had made.  
Naruto slipped out of bed and went to talk to Iruka sensei who was on the ground, sweeping away.

"Iruka sensei..." Naruto started, his voice fragile and quivering.

"Hmm?"  
Iruka sensei didn't turn his head around to Naruto but listened to him while continuing to do his work.

"...is it such a bad thing...to take away someone from another person?" Naruto asked, shiftily and glancing at Iruka sensei who stopped what he was doing.  
He turned around and gave a warm smile.

"And what do you mean by that?" Iruka sensei asked, softly.

"I...um..." Naruto mumbled quietly, "I think my existence...is um-... not a really good thing..."  
Naruto took a deep breath, and then finished his sentence, "for Sasuke..."

"You really think so?" I think you're just the same Naruto holding the same feeling towards Sasuke. After all, you_are_ Naruto no matter how much you try to change that fact. You just need to truly know that from the bottom of your heart, Naruto," Iruka sensei explained.

Naruto didn't truly understand what Iruka sensei meant but returned a smile with those glassy eyes.

"...un," Sasuke groaned in his sleep, "...-ruto, naruto..., _Naruto!_"  
He woke up with a start from his own voice and had sat bolt upright on his bead, sweating.  
He felt his tense body relaxing as he found his hand occupied by another's.  
Naruto was next to Sasuke, asleep in peace.  
Sasuke smiled softly at Naruto who opened his eyes and looked dazedly at Sasuke with glassy eyes.  
Sasuke noticed this but his smile didn't falter and when Naruto sat up sleepily, Sasuke hugged Naruto into a warm, morning embrace for gratitude that he was by his side once again.  
Naruto smiled and held Sasuke's arms for awhile, savouring the moment, but then pulled it down and off him.

"Sorry Sasuke... I'm not the Naruto you want," Naruto said, pulling a sad smile below his glassy eyes.

"I want _you_ Naruto, Sasuke smiled causing Naruto's eyes to widen.

"...but I thought you wanted-" Naruto started, but got cut off.

"I want that Naruto as well," Sasuke replied.  
Naruto's face darkened.

"No... you gotta choose," Naruto said, looking away.

"I choose both! Both are the same Naruto! There's only one Naruto in this while world and I like that one Naruto the most!" Sasuke clearly stated.

Sasuke's answer was definite.

Naruto looked really surprised when Sasuke said these words but Naruto felt both sides of himself dissolving into one as his eyes colour returned to the bright blue eyes which looked like it sprang back vibrantly and full of life.  
He hesitated to curve a smile, but when he found courage seeping into him, he gave the biggest smile he had ever given to Sasuke.

"Yeah! I'm Naruto and the _only_ Naruto who likes Sasuke the most!" Naruto said aloud, causing Sasuke to smile once more.

_No matter what happens, no matter how much I get betrayed, turned down or break down, I'm definitely gonna like Sasuke the most! He will be my most important person! I can't be selfish and let Sasuke become hurt again! It is better to have me hurt rather than Sasuke!_

Naruto's answer was definite.

Outside the room, Iruka sensei was leaning against the closed door with folded arms and a big smile.

_  
__Hey, Naruto. This isn't over... smile while you still can... but after this thunderstorm, a hurricane is yet to come..._

A voice carried by the wind, predicted Naruto's future and warned him but it never reached Naruto's ear...


	20. Chapter 20:We're happy, but there's pain

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_Hey, Naruto. This isn't over... smile while you still can... but after this thunderstorm, a hurricane is yet to come..._

Chapter 20: We're happy, yet what's this pain I'm feeling?

_It was a trick question I gave myself…__  
__'Which Naruto do you want? You have to choose'___

_Nobody had said I couldn't choose both.__  
__And no one had said that there__was__a choice laid out before me in the first place. If I'd have figured earlier that there couldn't have been two Naruto, we wouldn't have gone through all this trouble…___

_Naruto is Naruto. Always the same as ever…__  
__I now know that and understand that the most…_

-  
Some time had passed and the two boys were almost 8 years of age.  
Like usual, Naruto tripped over a rock and fell into the river with a heavy splash.  
The summer wind was not so hot today, but the river didn't seem to be too kind to Naruto to welcome him with a mild wet greeting.  
He was met with a bone-chilling slap to the face followed by his body, not so far off.

_There he goes again, that dobe,_Sasuke thought while smiling to himself as he looked away, _the same old usuratonkachi that I know of._  
Sasuke pulled a hand out of his pocket and offered it to the shivering Naruto who had screamed out the description of the unfriendly water.

"Stop acting so cool, Sasuke!" Naruto sneered at the smirking Uchiha, and with that, he grabbed Sasuke's hand and pulled him into the river.  
Sasuke's eyes widened from the unexpected pull as he fell into the water, also feeling cold greeting, swallowing him whole.

Under the water, Sasuke saw Naruto pull a face at him, inviting him to a challenge, which Sasuke accepted with a smirk and chased after Naruto who swam away, knowing what was coming next after getting the almighty Uchiha motivated.  
Naruto surfaced the air and took off his white, skin-glued t-shirt before jumping back into the river again so that he was able to speed swim more freely.  
Sasuke thought the same, and peeled off his shirt as well before diving off again to catch up to Naruto. Sasuke caught Naruto with no sweat and squeezed him tight around the waist till Naruto ran out of air who was trying to swim up to the surface.

Sasuke, feeling victorious, ended Naruto's punishment, and helped him up where Naruto broke the surface and greedily gulped fresh air. He clung to a rock to prevent the drift of the river take him away his weak body which had lack of oxygen.  
Feeling exhausted, he was panting hard, slouched on the rock in front of him, while felt heat rising on his cheeks as he heard a mocking laughter from behind, just above the sound of the rippling water.

"That wasn't funny!" Naruto shouted after taking awhile to catch his breath back.  
Sasuke stopped laughing immediately, but looked towards Naruto with an unintentional cute smirk which caused Naruto to blush.

_'Sh-t. Why am I blushing? Am I a girl or what!'_ Naruto scolded at himself inside his mind while cursing his rushing heartbeat.  
Sasuke swam over to Naruto's rock and leaned his pale arms on it with his chin rested on one of the arms. Naruto looked away.

"Hey, stop ignoring me, usuratonkachi," Sasuke smirked, knowing Naruto would shout back at him. When silence answered him instead, he was surprised and straightened up with a concerned look.

"Naruto?" Naruto had his eyes downcast and was trying to hide his pained expression, but the more he did, the more obvious it was to Sasuke.  
He stayed silent and kept his face hidden away from Sasuke.  
His silence made the water ripples ring as they jumped up onto the small rocks above the surface while the water lapped softly, licking the rocks on the edge of the river.

A part of the river was an object, which splashed louder than others where it was going against the current. That was Sasuke's body, moving a little upstream towards Naruto.  
Naruto looked up to see Sasuke's worried face before Sasuke held him in a tight embrace.  
Their cold skin touched and body heat was felt by both.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke murmured beside his ear.

"It's nothing," Naruto mumbled and pushed Sasuke away slowly. Naruto gave a grim smile, trying to cover up his emotions.

"Naruto, cut the crap! Don't keep telling me it's nothing!" Sasuke demanded, looking angry with a hint of a hurt look on his face.  
This wasn't the first time Naruto was like this and Sasuke was getting frustrated with this sudden change of mood.  
Not frustrated with Naruto, but with himself for not being able to know what to do when Naruto was like this and when he was like this.  
Naruto keeps his emotions bottled up and Sasuke didn't know what he did wrong or what went wrong but knew that the fault was within him that made Naruto act this way.  
Naruto just kept saying its fine, that it's nothing which makes Sasuke feel even more helpless.

"Tell me! I'll help you. I want to do anything I can do for you to make you feel better. I don't want to see you like this! Please, Naruto. I wanna…"Sasuke looked to the side, hesitating to say the next thing since he started blurting out his thoughts before he could stop himself but he was too late to stop now and gives in in the end to finish off his sentence, "I wanna protect you…"


	21. Chapter 21:An encouraging push

_"I wanna protect you…"_

Chapter 21: An encouraging push to take a step forward

Sasuke felt a blush creep up on his face and didn't dare look at Naruto. He was embarrassed by his own words and felt stupid for saying such a thing as if he was treating Naruto like a lover.  
Naruto had a blush, feeling that too and was facing the other way.

Awkward silence fell upon them before Naruto mumbled, "_baka…"_  
The two had a quick eyes contact before diving underwater to cool their faces and they swam to the shore, grinning together as they were before while putting back on their clothes which had dried by then, naturally, by the summer wind.

At night, Naruto slept on the couch and Sasuke, on the floor where a mattress and some blankets were laid out. But Naruto couldn't sleep so he woke up and was sitting down, looking at the stars from the window.

"What's on your mind now?" Sasuke's voice suddenly disturbed the silence. Naruto turned to see Sasuke lying down but wide awake.

"You were awake?" Naruto whispered as if he was cautious not to wake up anything of the night.

"What's the problem with me?" Sasuke asked, sitting up.

"There _are_ no problems…" Naruto whispered an answer, giving a small, unhappy smile.  
Sasuke sighed and broke his gaze on Naruto, resting his chin on his knees, assuming that Naruto won't give in to tell him the problem. But what Naruto said was the truth.

_There__**are**__no problems… that's the__**problem**__. You're too perfect for me, best at everything, too good to be with me. We are too different. You are too different to me. I don't deserve such a person like you, Sasuke… After all, I'm a…_

"Sasuke…" Naruto started, softly.

"Hmm?"

"Aren't you… embarrassed?"

_"I wanna protect you…"_  
Sasuke blushed. He thought of what he had said to Naruto before.

"Wha-What do you mean?" Sasuke said in a rush.

"I said, aren't you embarrassed for having to be with me, being my friend and all," Naruto re-asked, flatly.  
Sasuke blinked.

"Huh? Why would I be?"

"Because… I'm a monst-"

"You're not a monster! Naruto! I told you to_stop_that! Stop thinking that's what you are cause you're not!"

"But even_if_I don't! Others_do_! What's the difference! People are going to treat you badly too if you're with me!" Naruto shouted over Sasuke, not caring about disturbing anything anymore nor who might be listening to him.

"…So what?" Sasuke's quiet voice brightened the stars in the night sky, brightening Naruto's vision of Sasuke's hard, glaring face. Naruto had never seen Sasuke look so angry before.

"So_what_ if they do? I don't give a _damn!_They can give me the hell crap they've given to you as much as they like to me. As long as I'm with you, nothing else matters. No one else matters," Sasuke turned around and lay down, "this conversation is stupid and pointless. I'm going to sleep!"  
It wasn't pointless. Naruto felt his heart lift greatly and his worries drift away.

"Oyasumi, Sasuke," (Goodnight) Naruto quietly said with a tone which told Sasuke that Naruto had smiled when he said that, and Sasuke's worry too, had lifted, feeling that Naruto was okay.  
But Sasuke knew himself, that what he said wasn't pointless either but he was too embarrassed of what he had said to Naruto.  
Naruto calmly lowered himself to the floor beside Sasuke and snuck under the blanket.

"Oi, Naru-!"

"Na, Sasuke," Naruto stopped Sasuke's protest who was blushing, "I will… go to school tomorrow."  
Sasuke's eyes widened to hear this and he flicked around to face Naruto.  
This was something very surprising for Sasuke since Naruto had feared of going to school, from seeing everybody else.

"…really? You really want to do that?" Sasuke asked.  
Naruto nodded with a smile.  
He heard that Sasuke didn't mind how the people looked at him nor feel any shame that he was with him, so Naruto was getting back his courage tot go back to school too since he wasn't alone anymore.  
He also felt that it was his fault for Sasuke's long blank of no education.

"Thanks, Sasuke!" Naruto said happily as he hugged Sasuke.

"Thanks for what?" Sasuke asked, blushing madly as he tried to get away.  
Sasuke didn't get an answer because when Sasuke looked at Naruto, he was already fast asleep, breathing lightly and leaning his head on Sasuke. And no matter how much Sasuke tried, he couldn't get Naruto off him so he sighed and gave up in the end.  
He put a hand to his chest which was thumping madly. After moments of calming his heart down, he looked at Naruto and smiled softly, glad that Naruto had a more peaceful expression than previous nights.

"Oi! Wake up, usuratonkachi*!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto who pulled his covers over his head and attempted to tune out Sasuke's head-throbbing shouts.

"Just… a bit more," Sasuke barely heard Naruto's mumble through Naruto's thick guarded covers.

"No!" Sasuke demanded pulling the covers off him with one swift of an arm," you said you're going to school! School starts in 10 minutes!"  
Sasuke running here to there, rushing about and seducing Naruto to wake up with angry calls was like an appearance of a mother flustering about early in the morning.  
Naruto's eyes had opened at the word 'school' and had slowly sat up onto the couch with a sigh. When Sasuke noticed the small blond figure after some time getting two randoseru* ready, he stopped what he was doing, put some notebooks down that he was holding, and walked up to Naruto.

He crouched down below Naruto looking concerned and put a pair of comforting hands on Naruto's slightly hunched shoulders which didn't seem to be able to relax.

"You sure you wanna go? We can wait till you get a little bit better you know," Sasuke said, but Naruto shook his head after raising his eyes to Sasuke.

"I'm going," Naruto mumbled unconfidently, but with defiantly, making sure Sasuke knows how determined he was about the idea.

_I made up my mind to go. I'm going. I don't want to back off to anything anymore_

Of course it's a scary thought that you aren't going to back off to anything anymore. Not everybody can keep that determination up. But Naruto was getting determined for everything and anything just for the sake of the one person who was heavily important to him.

Heavy rushing footsteps thudded against the wooden floor of the corridor and a slam of a class door opening was heard, accompanied by two exhausted panting breaths.

"Oh, it's you two," Iruka sensei said when he turned his head around at the panting boys with randoseru no their backs, very nearly ready for class.

"Sorry… for being… late, sensei…" Sasuke managed to say between his huge breaths of consuming air.  
Iruka smiled and motioned the two to sit down. The two quickly sat in an empty row of bench and joined the class.  
5 minutes passed and already, Sasuke received a small folded note which was passed from the person behind.  
Sasuke opened the note and scanned the words quickly with his dark eyes that held suspicion.

**Where have you been? Why are you with that guy?**

Sasuke scribbled back quickly.

**Because I was with him** he wrote, folded the piece of paper and chucked it behind him without looking back, but the note landed right in front of the person who wrote it. Sasuke had pulled a cool face on since class started and Naruto looked towards Sasuke with a look that seemed very worried, since Sasuke's expression was different to what he usually sees. Naruto thought that Sasuke might treat him differently at school.  
The note came back with a few more words.  
Sasuke sighed as if the note was bothersome. Once again he read it quickly.

**But why? He's a monster!**

Sasuke clicked his tongue with annoyance and wrote back.

**No he's not. Where's the proof of that? If you don't have one, don't treat him like one**

Naruto's eyes downcast with an uneasy emotion from having a feeling that Sasuke and the others were talking about him, and he was almost certain that there was no doubt about it.  
When the note came back for the third time, Sasuke was surprised at how quickly the reply came. He opened it and read it.

**But he's a monster! That's common knowledge! Don't go near him, Sasuke! Everybody knows that!**

This snapped Sasuke's limit of patience and he tried his best not to lose control of it. He ripped the note to pieces and scattered them on to the ground.  
Everybody behind Sasuke noticed this and felt Sasuke's angry wave of aura. Naruto glanced at Sasuke's deadly looks, straight-forward eyes glaring at the blackboard as if piercing it and his teeth gritted hard, looking as though he was about to kill anything that got in his way and Naruto felt a bit scared since he was the closest to Sasuke right now.

_They don't know Naruto!_Sasuke thought furiously, _they don't know what pain he's been through, and just believing in stupid rumours that's going around the village! He doesn't deserve-_  
Sasuke suddenly looked surprised as he felt a hand brush his hand where it was on the bench chair that they were sitting on.  
He looked towards Naruto who looked a little worried before switching back his attention on to the blackboard with his cool expression, as if nothing happened since class had started.

Naruto's face couldn't hide disappointment but it didn't stay on his face for long for Sasuke had turned his hand around so his palm faced upwards and held Naruto's hand, where he gently squeezed it as if to comfort Naruto.

Sasuke faced slightly in an angle, away from Naruto to hide his blush that was starting to appear very faintly against his pale cheeks because he felt embarrassed, but he wanted to make sure that Naruto wasn't running up to wrong conclusions by the note passing.

Feeling comforted, Naruto lets go which gives Sasuke another surprise and he turns his head round to Naruto who faced the blackboard with a happy smile which to this, Sasuke formed a slight smile which nobody saw except Iruka sensei.

Morning classes went well with no more note passing.  
At interval, while walking in the corridors, some guys from another class fished past the pair from behind where the guys purposely crashed into Naruto, causing him to fall flat on his face.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Sasuke rushed over to Naruto's aid and asked. He was so worried as if he was over-protective over Naruto and held out a hand to help Naruto up who smiled and took his offered hand.

"Thanks, I'm fine," Naruto answered in a tiny unconfident voice.  
Sasuke looked worried still since he not only knew Naruto had masked a smile, but also noticed the other people were watching this scene, Sasuke's actions, and sending glares towards Naruto.  
The person who felt those glares and noticed the others the most was Naruto, whose heart was racing from fear. He quickly released the helping hand that Sasuke offered and gripped on the edges of his white t-shirt, looking down and to make sure he has no eye contact with others as if he turned back to himself when he first came to the academy.  
Worry and frustration was bubbling inside Sasuke that nearly drove him insane since he knew how Naruto felt but was able to do nothing about it.  
When Naruto waited for Sasuke outside the boys' toilets, a group of girls pulled Naruto to the nearest corner suddenly and glared down at him like a hawk with its prey.

"Hey, _monster_! Don't go sucking up to Sasuke-kun! You don't deserve to have any friends, not the least, Sasuke-kun! Can't you see that he's trying so hard to look worried because you're so pitiful? If you keep relying on Sasuke-kun, he's going to be like a servant chained up and never be free to do whatever he wants. Stop acting depressed! Monsters don't have emotions and don't deserve to have them! On the other hand, Sasuke-kun does, so soon he'll fall apart from stress that you're giving him. Just leave him alone! _Got that!_"  
Naruto received a kick in the stomach, hard, which caused Naruto to ball up onto the ground with a cringed face, bearing the pain. He fearfully nodded many times at the girls to tell them that he understood, wanting to be obedient as possible to avoid another blow.

"Poor, Sasuke-kun… having to look after a monster…" one of the girls sighed as they all strode off.

Naruto was shaking all over until Sasuke came out of the toilets. Naruto stopped shaking immediately, remembering the girls' words.  
Sasuke turned round to Naruto, and walked up to him. He seemed that Naruto looked smaller than he usually is as if Naruto wanted to disappear into a hole to hide.

"What're you doing all the way over here?" Sasuke asked, in suspicion.  
Naruto smiled, shaking his head to and fro for an answer.  
_There he goes again. Pulling on a fake smile..._


	22. Chapter 22:Not used to

_Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me._

"Poor, Sasuke kun… having to look after a monster…"

There he goes again. Pulling on a fake smile…

Chapter 22: Not used to...

At lunch's first bell, Naruto quickly packed his things away and dashed out the door before Sasuke could say anything.  
Naruto was up on the tree, the usual place where he spent his lunch by himself, just sleeping. But today he couldn't even sleep. The uncomfortable tree barks scratched at Naruto's trousers and seemed harshly rougher than how he remembered.  
When everybody filtered out of school to the grounds to eat, Naruto just watched them from where he was.

Meantime, Sasuke checked the toilets and classrooms, all the possible places where Naruto could be. After checking everywhere in the school building, including outside, Sasuke gave up searching and sat down on the grass at a random spot, away from everybody else.  
His conclusion in his minds was that if he stayed put, Naruto would come to him.

The thought of Naruto avoiding Sasuke was out of the question because Sasuke knows that Naruto is afraid of people and he can't stand it by himself. That was Sasuke's reasoning.  
But he didn't know he was wrong.

Naruto watched this Sasuke from a high point of view with a face of disdain which even darkened when he saw the girls from before walk up to Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun," Naruto faintly hear due to distance, "it seems you didn't bring your lunch today. Do you want to share mine?"

Purposeful elegancy was in her voice and the tone was an obvious girlish sound that was very flirtatious, sickening Sasuke.  
Sasuke ignored the girls, but they kept nagging until Sasuke pronounced that he already has money to buy his own lunch already.

"_And_," Sasuke demanded, before any of the girls talked any further, "I'm not going to eat unless _Naruto_ is going to eat."  
That shut the girls up. Sasuke made it so clear that no mistakes can be heard.  
Naruto dropped down from the tree, hearing this and ran over to Sasuke as he remembered the promise Sasuke made awhile ago.

_" Okay. To be fair, from now on, I'll eat only as much as you will!"_

"…sorry for being late, Sasuke," Naruto panted.  
Sasuke turned around at his voice, and then smirked at him.

"About time, _usuratonkachi_," Sasuke said.  
Sasuke got up and took Naruto's wrist to pull him to the school cafeteria but Naruto got tripped by one of the girls, and he crashed down to the ground for the second time that day.

Naruto pulled himself up with a shaky word of sorry to Sasuke, who didn't miss the small wince Naruto had, but nevertheless, heading off again, thinking it was the usual Naruto to be a dope.

At the cafeteria, only a couple of girls from their class were there.  
Naruto was given money from Sasuke so he could order whatever he wanted, but seeing the cafeteria lady's face expression; Naruto froze and accidentally dropped the money that Sasuke was handing.  
The coins rolled and scattered in multiple directions while Sasuke stared at Naruto in concern.

"Are you… okay, Naruto?" Sasuke asked.  
Naruto shakily lowered himself to pick up the coins.

"I… I'm sorry," Naruto stammered.  
Sasuke started to pick up the coins too.

The two classmate girls started to collect them too only when Sasuke started to pick them up as well and handed them to Sasuke.

"Here, Sasuke-kun," the said, which Sasuke snatched toe coins roughly, accompanied by a glare.

"Don't help!" Sasuke growled.  
He knew that these girls only picked up the coins once Sasuke did, and not for Naruto but for Sasuke.

"Buy whatever you want, Naruto," Sasuke said gruffly, "and don't worry about anything or anyone else."  
Naruto was still worried but he didn't want Sasuke to worry so he did as he was told, but there was one problem.

"Can I have this custard bread, please?" Naruto asked.  
No response.

"Excuse me?" Naruto said a little louder, but the cafeteria lady was busy doing things at the side and didn't look up.

"Hey! Didn't you here, lady!" Sasuke shouted.  
The lady turned around looking surprised.

"Oh, did you want something, dear?" she asked.

"…It's not me. It's Naruto," Sasuke replied, somewhat surprised.

_Is this lady deaf?_  
Sasuke looked at her suspiciously before turning to Naruto.

"Go on, tell her what you want," Sasuke said.  
Naruto tried again.

"Can I pl-"

"What is it that you want, dear?" the cafeteria lady asked, cutting off Naruto's words.  
Sasuke looked shocked to hear this while Naruto's face downcast, since it was expected.  
Sasuke took Naruto's money from his hand and gave it to the lady with a glare.

"Give me custard bread and two salmon onigiri," Sasuke said quietly, without formal language, suppressing his temper down although his death glare was hard to get rid of.

"Here you go," the lady said with a smile, handing the two items and change.  
Not a flicker of smile did Sasuke return, or a word thanks to her, but shoved his change in his pocket and snatching the bought items, before pulling Naruto's wrist and leaving the cafeteria.

Sasuke asked for the things he wanted in a testing, quiet voice, to test the lady's hearing and as he suspected, the lady didn't have any hearing problems, but merely had been ignoring Naruto purposely.

"Here," Sasuke thrust Naruto his bread to him as Sasuke sat down onto the ground, followed by Naruto, who received his bread.  
The wind was quietly making its way through the two and the voices of children playing drifted over the school building and behind where the two boys were.

"Eat, Naruto," Sasuke snarled into his onigiri. He was frustrated with everyone.  
Naruto hesitantly started to eat.  
Seeing this, Sasuke sighed inwardly and lowered his food.

"Don't worry about those ignorant people, Naruto…" Sasuke comforted, "no matter how other people treat you, it won't matter to us. We can just ignore them because you've got me and I'll be with you. That makes the others worthless to either of us. We don't need anyone else between us."

A hint of anger was heard in his voice, but Sasuke didn't want to take out his anger on Naruto at all, so suppressed the boiling emotions with all his strength that he could muster at that point.  
His speech didn't sound like himself at all, but he knew why. It was because he really liked Naruto and cared about him, but he didn't want to admit that, so his face suddenly flushed after realising how embarrassing it was for him to say what he said and to mean it.

To distract his own feelings, he quickly finished off his onigiri in his hand.  
It wasn't that far ago when he brought Naruto back and when he was so straight forward. But even still, he started to change and started feel embarrassed with saying things so honestly from the very depth of his heart and to say what was in his mind.

"You don't… have to take care of me too much. I'm used to these things already," Naruto muttered quietly without much progress in his appetite.  
Sasuke sighed and stood up in front of Naruto where he sunk to Naruto's eye level.  
He pulled Naruto's wrist which still held his custard bread and Sasuke took a bite out of it.

"Eh?" Naruto looked up, surprised,"…Sasuke? I… thought you hated sweet stuff."  
Sasuke put his forehand up to his mouth with a cringed face, but cleared his mouth through the throat and reached over to take another bite of the bread.

"Sasuke~! _What are you doing!_" Naruto asked looking helpless as he became slightly scared at watching Sasuke take another bite off something he didn't like.

"Ue~…" Sasuke felt a bit sick, being disgusted by the sweet taste but tried to take in for another bite when Naruto pulled back.

"Baka!" Naruto cried at Sasuke while pushing him away where Sasuke fell back onto the grass.  
Sasuke pulled a smirk, looking up at Naruto.

"You're the baka," Sasuke answered, standing up and now looking down on Naruto," this is what you're trying to do all the time. Doing something you don't want to do, trying to get used to what you can never get used to,"

Naruto was only able to stare back into Sasuke's dark eyes in dumbfound, with his mouth agape but no words coming out of it.  
Naruto hardly mentions things twice, but once was enough for Sasuke. He remembered each thing Naruto had said to Sasuke.

_"THERE IS NO SUCH THING IS NO DAMN PAIN!"_

"No one would help a f-cking monster!"

"Don't hurt me! I didn't do anything! I'm not a monster!"

"Nobody is ever worried about me! I bet you they're relieved that I'm not there! They're all afraid!_  
That includes you too!" "Liar! You're afraid of me! Don't deny it!"_

"...am I...allowed to believe that?"

"_**I s m y e x i s t e n c e s u c h a b a d t h i n g ?"**_

Naruto felt tears forming in his eyes, but pulled them back, not wanting to let it out.  
Sasuke turned around and walked a few steps away from Naruto to spew in the bushes.

"Ah- gross…" Sasuke muttered under his breath, talking about the bitter taste inside his mouth as he wiped his mouth with a forehand.  
Naruto quietly laughed at Sasuke's state that seemed so uncool with a slight flush on his pale cheeks from embarrassment, unlike Sasuke's usual cool self with a self-confident look.

Sasuke turned to Naruto and smiled, looking at Naruto's smile with tears in his eyes.  
A small relief had washed over Sasuke and they both felt warmer inside.

"Naruto, you're laughing too much!"

"Ahahahahahaha..."

-  
Sasuke lowered himself beside Naruto and cleared off his mouth with water which he reached over and got from his bag. He gave in a deep breath after pulling his lips away from the plastic bottle and then looked towards Naruto.

"Now tell me what's wrong. If something's bothering you, tell me. If it's about me, I don't mind, just say it. I'll-"

"Don't get so worked upon me, Sasuke," Naruto smiled, showing a glint of sadness in his eyes that Sasuke doesn't miss," you're trying too hard."

Sasuke denied it. He knew it wasn't him who was trying too hard. He knew something was up. Sasuke's frustration was expressed on his face before he knew it and without intention which made Naruto fear that he had angered Sasuke.

"…Sasu-?"

"Why can't you be more honest?" Sasuke growled with his deep emotions bubbling inside him. This frightened Naruto and he nearly dropped his bread.

"Why can't you say what you are really thinking? Why can't you rely on me? Why can't you trust me more?" Sasuke blurted out his true thoughts without thinking, but Sasuke stopped when he saw Naruto's face expression.

It was blank.

His eyes were blank, but reflected sorrow.  
He stared at Sasuke as if he's not looking at him, but through him.  
Reacting to the word 'trust', which had struck deep into Naruto's heart, and had let something in him trigger and be expressed in his eyes that reversed Sasuke's attitude, looking at this blank Naruto anxiously.

"_…trust?_" Naruto said, his word sounding toneless and hollow, "I can't trust you…"  
A jolt of pain struck in Sasuke's heart.

"I forgave you, but I've lost my trust on you…you know that. What you did that day… I can't let it go as if it was nothing, Sasuke. Even if you think that day, the feeling I got, doesn't matter anymo-"

"Of course it matters! Of course I'll never forget it! I know I was wrong to do all that and I know it was something unforgivable! But even if we don't forget about it, I want you to change! I want you to smile more and have more fun!_I wanna protect you_!" Sasuke yelled out.

"… help? I never asked for help, Sasuke," Naruto stated clearly which made Sasuke blush in embarrassment.  
To Sasuke, saying that last sentence had much courage needed to do so, but his effort was washed away with a quick sweep of Naruto's emotionless words.

Sasuke bit his lower lip, containing his fury of embarrassment and sorrow from his deepening wound in his heart. Sasuke was weak by words, and when his emotions get attacked by them, Sasuke instantly self-exists as his age, a young child who is still immature and can't control his emotions.

And on the other hand, when Naruto is struck by emotive words, his ways towards Sasuke changes and speaks from the lower, deeper part of his emotions where he has negative thoughts, just like what he used to be, acting unlike his age.

Naruto never had the chance to be a child, and act like a child since no one treated him as a child or a friend before, so he had to cope everything which never goes the way he wants it to, and couldn't be selfish in anyway, nor suck up to any adult. Sasuke was all Naruto had when he was able to turn back to his normal age, but when his past emotions trigger; he was back to his past self.  
Sasuke knew this well, so when this happened, he knew what was to be done.

"Ow!"  
Sasuke's face expression had cleared off his face and he had flicked a finger to Naruto's forehead.

"Ba-ka. Stop acting like an adult, chibi!" Sasuke said to Naruto whose arm reflexes to his forehead to cease the instantaneous pain he received.

"Aa!" Naruto cried aloud with tears in his eyes, "Who's the chibi, you idiot!"  
Naruto quickly reached over to grab Sasuke's onigiri and took off the wrap in a rush before taking a huge bite out of it.

"A! That's mine, baka!" Sasuke shouted.

"Stop callin m'baka! You bwaka!" Naruto shouted in muffles through a mouthful of rice.  
Naruto ate the whole thing too fast and his throat got stuck with rice, turning blue.  
Seeing this coming, Sasuke quickly gave Naruto water who drank it and cleared his throat before he fainted.

"_Gah!_" Naruto cried and panted.

"…I still think you're the baka," Sasuke sighed with a slight curve of a smirk on his face, forming on his lips.

"…shut…up," Naruto managed to say, exhausted.

"I'll go buy another one," Sasuke said while walking away.  
Naruto heard Sasuke laugh quietly while looking at Sasuke's back becoming distant.

"Bastard…," Naruto mumbled.  
He sighed and looked up at the sky which was mostly covered in the greyish tinted clouds.  
Hearing the soft wind, he became fully aware that he was alone right now and the pulled his mask off.

Not tears, nor whimpering, but his bright blue eyes were narrowed, at the edge of crying and his mouth showed no curve of a frown, but nor a smile.

People meet and part sooner or later.  
There's no such word is eternity.

Naruto knew he was able to control his face expression, but not his emotions.  
He wondered how much longer he would be able to be with Sasuke.

If Sasuke left him, would he even be able to live...?

Such thoughts ran in Naruto's mind and never did he know that Sasuke was in a corner,  
trying to stop the tears that kept constantly flowing from his eyes that was hard to keep when he was with Naruto.  
But as Naruto's harsh words got to him, he needed an escape so he wouldn't see Sasuke gritting his teeth so hard but yet with a failing attempt on stopping the tears, hating himself like this, crying like a weak child. He thought if he showed Naruto his weak side, he would be less reliable, and all he ever wished for was to be relied upon.

But of course Naruto still hadn't forgiven him. He knew that. He expected it. He deserved it. He stepped on the landmine himself.  
Yet, he couldn't stop the despair that he had overflowing his heart.  
Of course. Sasuke wouldn't forgive anyone if he got betrayed as well, just like how he couldn't ever forgive, or trust his big brother again.

But why? Why did it hurt so much?

He was the closest person to Naruto, yet he felt like the most distant person from him. Maybe like this, with no real step forward, Sasuke could really end up broken up inside. He already felt a part of him starting to crumble...


	23. Chapter 23:Unexpected intrusion

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_He wondered how much longer he would be able to be with Sasuke.__  
__If Sasuke left him, would he even be able to live?___

_He knew that. He expected it. He deserved it.__  
__But why? Why did it hurt so much?__  
_

Chapter 23: Unexpected intrusion  
Being protected under Sasuke's wing, Naruto managed a few weeks of tolerance and humiliation.  
But troubles began when a group of girls just couldn't accept the two of Naruto and Sasuke together.

"Uncle! That monster is with an Uchiha! _This shouldn't be happening_!"

"…yes. The Uchiha is too young to control the Kyuubi right now, but may be able to in near future, planning an attack, manipulating the Kyuubi. It indeed is dangerous to have the two together," the said uncle mumbles to himself before saying, "very well. I shall go and separate the two before it's too late."

The next day, two joyful kids walked back home, talking with a smile on each of their faces. A dark shadow cast over them as a tall figure stands before them. Sasuke and Naruto looked up to see the scary, menacing look in the man's face.

"Young, Uchiha!" The man boomed, "I order you to move away from the monster!"  
Sasuke didn't move forward, but backward, closer to Naruto and raised a protecting arm before him.

"Why is that?" Sasuke growled, challenging up to this guy who was more than twice the size of the two boys.

"The two of you should not be together. If you do not want to get hurt, move aside!" The man spoke again with his booming voice.

"No," was Sasuke's answer straight back at the tall figure.

"Then you leave me no choice," the man said quietly and before the two boys were able to react, the tall man was behind the two and he threw Naruto to the men who had been behind the tall man all this time.

"…you!" Sasuke growled as he recognised the men.  
_-flashback-__  
__A drunk man threw a broken beer bottle at Sasuke who sensed it and dodged by moving aside but didn't have his reflex quick enough from the distraction of his minds and emotion.__  
__He received a deep gash on his left cheek.___

_Sasuke death-glared at the man who threw it, as his jutsu became undone and returned to his normal figure with a poof.__  
__The drunken man looked shocked to see that it wasn't Naruto and that Sasuke jumped up in front of the man, raising his leg to kick under the man's chin, strong.___

_The man flipped, rolled over and crashed into a bar, bleeding from the head.__  
__Sasuke walked up to him, giving him the best, darkest death glare he ever made, his eyes slightly glowing red.___

_"So you're the one who's hurting Naruto," Sasuke said, piercing the man with his glare with such force that the man couldn't move or talk from fear though the people in the bar charged at Sasuke, as if Sasuke's words were a signal for attack.___

_"...you guys too?" Sasuke asked quietly before moving into action.__  
__He bet up all the people in the bar one by one, giving each a clear hit so they won't be able to stand up again for awhile.___

_"If you hurt Naruto ever again, I'll kill you all," Sasuke warned, and then left the bar quietly with his hands in his pockets.___

_-Flashback ends-_

Naruto was pushed to the ground by these men, with his arms twisted at the back to which Naruto cried in pain.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, but his wrists were held in place by the tall man, behind Sasuke's back which prevented Sasuke from moving.  
Sasuke strangled to get free with grumbles of complaint.

"Get off! Let..go,of,me! Leave, Naruto, _alone!_"

"Listen up. Here's the deal kid," the tall man spoke to Sasuke, "if you swear to never go near the monster ag-"

"_He's not a monster!_" the raged Uchiha shouted, cutting off the man's words.  
Naruto stopped struggling momentarily and looked up at Sasuke, eyes widened with shock.

The tall man sighed and let go of Sasuke who jumped up to kick but was caught midway and thrown back to the ground.  
Ignoring his scratches, Sasuke aimed pointless punches and kicks, which were all blocked effortlessly and the attacks did not seem to get paid any attention.  
Sasuke was no match to the man, but Sasuke was stubborn to accept that fact.  
The man finally grew tired of the struggling figure and made his move by kneeing Sasuke to the stomach, hard.

"Gah!" Sasuke fell to his knees and curled into a ball on the ground.

"_Sasuke_!" Naruto cried, not missing the tears that sprang from Sasuke's eyes when he took the blow.  
"See how weak and defenceless you are. You are no match to me. Just do as I say," the tall man boomed.  
Sasuke got up and aimed another punch but got stopped and received another blow in the stomach. But Sasuke still got up, refusing to be ordered by someone who randomly shows up and tells them to be separated.

Sasuke's stubbornness fuelled the man's irritation and he started to repeatedly hit Sasuke continuously to the stomach without any mercy and did not stop even though Sasuke started to cough up blood.  
When seeing that Sasuke couldn't move his body anymore, the tall man kept Sasuke's limp body up by holding up his wrist like an prey caught in a hunting.  
Naruto hadn't been harmed, but was forced to watch Sasuke being beat up without being able to move. All Naruto was able to do was watch and scream Sasuke's name as tears streamed down his face.

"Do you wish to cooperate now?" the man asked the weakened Uchiha who was panting, his eyes slightly losing focus.  
"…no," Sasuke managed to say through his wincing and panting.

"Urgh!"  
Another kick was sent to Sasuke's stomach.

"_No!_ Leave Sasuke alone! Hurt me instead!" Naruto screamed.

"You guys don't understand, do you? Humans and monsters can never co-exist together in peace. They are different from the_heart_!"

To this, Naruto felt a huge pound of heartbeat and a huge wave of guilt rushed over him, a realisation washing over him that this situation right now, this scene, and how Sasuke is getting beaten up may be_all his fault.___

_Is it… because of me?___

_Am I the one doing something wrong again?___

_Sasuke's there, getting beaten up because of me?___

_Is Sasuke in pain because of me?___

_Is Sasuke suffering now because of me?___

_Is it all... because of my existence?__  
_


	24. Chapter 24:Tear apart

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_Is it... because of me?  
_

Chapter 24: Tear apart  
_Is it... because of me?_

Am I the one doing something wrong again?

Sasuke's there, getting beaten up because of me?

Is Sasuke in pain because of me?

Is Sasuke suffering now because of me?

Is it all... because of my existence?  


"...the one," came a voice from the ground and the tall man looked towards the small dispatched figure on the ground.

"The one you've got a problem with is _me_, isn't it?" Naruto looked up and glared at the tall man and continued," then leave Sasuke out of this. _I_ will go with whatever deal you make!"

"No! Naru-!"

"_Shut up_, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted viciously along with a furious glare which reminded Sasuke of the glare he received from Naruto with the red eyes that had belonged to a monster.

"Let go of Sasuke. Let him go home," Naruto pleaded quietly but clearly.  
The tall man let go as he was told but Sasuke, who instantly fell to his knees after been let go, didn't move away.  
Sasuke's eyes hid in the shadows of his bangs, trying to hide the eyes that showed fear.

"…I'm not... going anywhere," Sasuke, with a mouth that had blood trailing from his lips down to his chin, said stubbornly.  
He was terrified, but he didn't want to run away from Naruto ever again.  
He didn't want to back away from those eyes ever again.  
He never wanted to abandon Naruto ever again.

The tall man tried to take in action again to get things through his own way, but yet again, he was stopped by Naruto.

"_Stop!_Don't lay a finger on him anymore! He's got nothing to do with us," Naruto shouted before it was too late, not able to bear the sight of Sasuke getting hurt again, "_I'll_ do the talking."  
Everybody here at this scene was glaring at someone else, except Sasuke who kept his eyes down.

"_Sasuke_, get your _f-ckin_ ass out of here, _now_!" Naruto growled.  
Sasuke felt a jolt of fear and looked up, hearing Naruto swear. The last time Naruto had sworn was when Naruto had cut the line of bond, not forgiving Sasuke.

Sasuke had a sudden new feeling of fear that this was a déjà vu of Naruto trying to break the bond that held the two together this far.  
He didn't want to get hurt again, nor hear the painful words thrown at him, but he gritted his teeth and didn't dare move from his spot.  
However much he was to get hurt from Naruto's words, however much he would get hurt, he would never abandon Naruto here alone.  
If he did, he knew what was going to happen.

"Did you f-ckin hear me! Get-!"

"No," Sasuke replied after thickly swallowing, and waited for what was to come, and Naruto exploded with frustration on cue.

"Can you just do what I tell you to do and do me a favor for once! You always make things so sh-tty! You're not helping me any better than anyone else in this f-cking world! Like I said, I don't _ever_ intend on trusting you ever again! You think all the stuff you did was for me? No, you just wanted to justify your f-cking crime. You think I'd actually be grateful that you pulled me back into this f-cking world? If you left me alone, I wouldn't have been starting my sh-t like all over again! If you want to at least prove that you want to help me, _get the hell out of here, you f-cking bastard! Leave me ALONE!_" Naruto screamed.

Knives shot to Sasuke's heart with the sharpest, finest blades, slicing harshly into him one after the other as each word came from Naruto's mouth, leaving Sasuke to suffer with his beating of the heart that dared to stop any time soon.  
Sasuke found he couldn't breathe.

All of what Naruto said wasn't just painful words, but the truth which was why it was giving Sasuke extremely heavy damage.  
He _was_ doing this to justify his wrong doings. It was _his_ selfish reasons of wanting Naruto back that had dragged him back to this world.

_"But that Naruto you want doesn't want to come back...___

He ran away from pain that you keep giving him...__

Bringing him back may only make things more painful for him and be the exact opposite of the happiness Naruto wants...__

The only thing you will do is give him what he doesn't desire because that is the reason he ran away in the first place...  


His heart felt like it was literally ripping apart, hearing Naruto's words that made all Sasuke's efforts so far was a waste and his highly raised hopes had a dramatic drop to an endless pit of blackness and emptiness.

Naruto knew he went overboard, and it was a torture to see Sasuke looking _so_ full of pain.  
He said the worst things he can ever say to Sasuke, and regretted saying it even as he said it.  
He wanted to immediately shout that it was all a lie and that he loved Sasuke more than anyone else in the world, but he had to self-control and hold the bursting feeling down.

He _had_ to do this for Sasuke's sake.  
Or he would lose his most important person.  
He knew if he didn't go this far, with Sasuke's stubbornness, he would never leave.

Sasuke finally lifted his unstable body off the ground and swayed a bit, but started to walk away, without looking once at Naruto.  
He didn't want Naruto to see his tears.  
He didn't want to admit to Naruto that he had tried hard, the best he could do protect him when he felt so helpless and useless.  
Sasuke heard the tall man shout while Sasuke limped towards home, clutching his stomach from pain that he endured for nothing, or so he thought.

"Be warned. If I catch the two of you together again, I will have to kill _you_, young Uchiha!"

Barely hearing the words, Sasuke bit his quivering lip from stopping the attempt of letting out a sob as two white streams of tears gleamed in the orange light of sunset.


	25. Chapter 25:Seriously serious

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.  
_  
__"Can you just do what I tell you to do and do me a favor for once! You always make things so sh-tty! You're not helping me any better than anyone else in this f-cking world! Like I said, I don't ever intend on trusting you ever again! You think all the stuff you did was for me? No, you just wanted to justify your f-cking crime. You think I'd actually be grateful that you pulled me back into this f-cking world? If you left me alone, I wouldn't have been starting my sh-t like all over again! If you want to at least prove that you want to help me, get the hell out of here, you f-cking bastard! Leave me ALONE!"__  
__"Be warned. If I catch the two of you together again, I will have to kill you, young Uchiha!"_

Chapter 25: Seriously serious

In the darkness, a heavily wounded little figure kept walking down a desolated street until it staggered to the only house that was there at the end of the street.  
He was a masterpiece of how ugly people's cruelty can be with their poisoned hearts.  
There were bruises all over his face and massive bleeding everywhere, although most were already starting to heal with a faint red glow.  
Once the figure opened the door, it slumped down on to the floor, not being able to supports its own body up any longer...

"Naruto!" A shout alerted the figure on the floor.

"…Sa…suke?" A scared, frightened voice escaped through the boy's cracked and bleeding lips.

"Naruto! Are you okay? Oh, god!" Sasuke panicked as quickly pulled Naruto in and shut the door.  
Naruto tried to push Sasuke away during Sasuke's process with a strong loud shout of, "_no!_"

"Naruto?" Sasuke stopped dead on his tracks which was in the middle of the living room.  
Sasuke's hurt expression was clearly seen in Naruto's vision with his frightened eyes and a help from the dim light casting upon Sasuke's pale face.

"…why are you here, Sasuke?" Naruto asked in a bare whisper, "I thought I told you to-"

"_This is my home!_" Sasuke exclaimed aloud with a face that showed that he was about to burst into tears any second now., cutting off Naruto, "This is my home now too…"  
Sasuke had a pleading look to which Naruto's didn't lose to either. He had much pleading eyes as did Sasuke. Like Naruto had predicted, Sasuke _was_ very stubborn. And he hadn't given up yet, even after all that.

"You have a place of your own, Sasuke. Go back. Never come back. Stay away from me," Naruto ordered.

"I don't-"

"_Get out of the house!_" Naruto screamed, "for_God's sake_just get the hell out, _please!_ What if they find us together! What if they find you here! _They're gonna really kill you for real!_"

Naruto's scream was heard a thousand times louder than in reality in Sasuke's ears.  
Naruto's scream sounded so desperate to get rid of Sasuke, and Sasuke missed the fact that Naruto didn't include any swearing in his screaming.  
The resonance of the voice vibrated heavily into Sasuke's brain, almost making him insane.  
An uncontrollable earthquake was triggering inside Sasuke and wasn't going to calm any second now. Naruto's words were black, poison-tipped curses, draining away Sasuke's blood from his heart and face, getting paler than usual, his heart, starting to fail to pump in a regular beat.

"I-It's okay… they won't come here," Sasuke said calmly, a wry smile forming on his lips and tear drops at the tip of his lashes, ready to be sent down at any moment, "…I'm not going anywhere."

Sasuke didn't know why, after being rejected so many times, that he still clung onto Naruto strongly. Naruto's words affected Sasuke so badly that Sasuke didn't even know what he was doing or saying, partially becoming mental with emotion overload. His blood runs cold and his hands begin to shake. But none of these symptoms, Naruto seemed to notice, and not even Sasuke himself.

"_No!_ Sasuke! _I don't want you killed!_ I don't want to be alone again! I don't want to see you hurt, ever again. So _please_ just _listen to me_, Sasuke…" Naruto cried into Sasuke's chest with one hand gripping onto Sasuke's sleeve.  
Naruto just bawled out on Sasuke, thinking why Sasuke just couldn't understand what he was trying to say.  
Why Sasuke couldn't get the message through, that this was dangerous and that he might get killed, into his brain that was assumed to be smart. Naruto's heart was just as filled up as Sasuke's and his whole body throbbed with pain from physical wounds and emotional wounds.  
But as if Sasuke felt Naruto's message through strong thoughts and emotion, Sasuke's body started to function again and Naruto's sobs reached Sasuke's ears as he suddenly clicked back to himself, paying attention to what Naruto was saying now, his tears falling one after another.

"_I don't want you to die…I don't want to lose you…I don't want you to get killed…I won't be able to forgive myself..._," Naruto sobbed.

"Naruto, get a hold of yourself," Sasuke said, his own voice quivering while he carried Naruto to the couch which was currently Naruto's bed so that he was able to sleep with Sasuke who slept on the floor with the bed mattress.  
Naruto didn't want him to die. That was all the satisfied feeling he needed from Naruto.  
At least it showed him that he cared for Sasuke even if it was a little bit.  
This brings back Sasuke's courage to take this matter about Naruto within his hands and get in charge of the situation, regaining his confident 'Uchiha' self.

"Naruto. It's okay. I promise that they won't come here. They won't be bothered since it's far away. We'll figure something out. As long as we're not seen together by the drunken men and that old man, we will be fine."

After sometime, Sasuke soothed Naruto as he lay him down, who didn't let go of Sasuke but instead, gripped tightly onto him as if holding him like a lifeline.  
As if Sasuke will leave his side permanently if he let go now, which was one of the fears that Naruto ever dreaded, and did not know that it was about to become the truth a few years ahead.  
Naruto's tears subsided for awhile and at that moment, Sasuke found time to pull away from Naruto just momentarily to grab some stuff.  
Sasuke placed his hand over Naruto's and pulled down lightly, trying to get Naruto off him.

"Naruto, I need you to let go of me so I can get some bandages for you," Sasuke said, lightly tugging, but Naruto shook his head and didn't give the slightest sign of letting go.

"_Naruto_," Sasuke sighed.

"…-m…sor-," Naruto said in a bare whisper which Sasuke couldn't catch.

"What was that, Naruto?" Sasuke asked quietly, straining his ears.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke…," Naruto mumbled with his head partially buried in his pillow, muffling his voice more than enough already," I didn't mean any of the stuff I said back then… I just couldn't think of another way… you wouldn't have left otherwise… I was so scared of losing you… that's why… I'm sorry…"  
Sasuke smiled as Naruto buried his head fully on the pillow, crying into it again with refreshing tears.

"I know, Naruto. I know… And I forgive you," Sasuke assured.  
Sasuke tugged lightly on Naruto's hand again which came away slowly from Sasuke's sleeve.  
When Sasuke came back from a short trip to the drawers where the first aid kit was, he found Naruto asleep.  
Sasuke carefully treated the wounds and not to wake the exhausted small blond at the same time but Sasuke discontinued the success when Sasuke slightly moved Naruto's left arm.

"Aa-h!" Naruto cried as tears slipped down his face.  
Sasuke was momentarily shocked from Naruto's sudden movement of sitting upright on the couch, and had frozen.

_I only moved his arm a little…_Sasuke thought, still shocked from the sudden outburst.

"Na-naruto…Are you okay?" Sasuke hesitantly asked.

"What's wrong?"

"…It…hurts," Naruto cried and that was when Sasuke focused on Naruto's left arm properly and was shocked to see it bent in and awkward angle.

"No… they didn't," Sasuke whispered, "they _didn't_!"

Sasuke became enraged by the fact that Naruto's left arm was broken and _very badly_.


	26. Chapter 26:The clock struck

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me.

_"No… they didn't," Sasuke whispered, "they didn't!"__  
__Sasuke became enraged by the fact that Naruto's left arm was broken and very badly._

Chapter 26: The clock struck

Naruto was pulled onto Sasuke's back and was carried to the door when Naruto managed to cry, "wait!"  
Sasuke abruptly stopped.

"_What?_" Sasuke snapped, sounding more forceful than he'd meant to and with a glare to his back that immediately vanished after seeing Naruto's frozen, frightened look.

"...where are you going?" Naruto asked in a quiet, quivering voice.

"_Hospital_," Sasuke answered nearly rolling his eyes, as if he was stating the obvious.

"NO!" Naruto shouted, immediately rejecting the idea and went against it strongly, "no! No! No! No! No! No-"

"Then WHAT!," Sasuke shouted louder, then instantly calmed down before continuing, "are we supposed to do about your arm?"

"…just leave it, Sasuke… It'll heal," Naruto mumbled in an unsure, unconfident voice that doubt his own words and wanted to just avoid saying or admitting that people won't help him even if they _did_ go to the hospital.

"Heal and _bend_ the right way up?" Sasuke asked, louder still.  
He felt Naruto become small behind is back, trying to shrink as much as possible, as if wanting to hide into a small hole that will separate him from the rest of the world, and that made Sasuke regret his harsh sarcasm. But it couldn't be helped that Sasuke was feeling mad and frustrated.  
All he had who could listen and take in his anger out on was Naruto which was no option for Sasuke, so was trying not to lose control and take out his anger on Naruto.  
After realising that Sasuke was at fault and his heart feeling heavy, he tried to calm his whole body and mind before talking to Naruto again.

"Naruto…," Sasuke tried again, softly, "I just want to make sure you're alright, okay?"  
Naruto nodded on Sasuke's shoulder, his one grip tightening on Sasuke's back.  
Sasuke sighed and turned back to the couch after feeling Naruto's tense body against his back which didn't seem to relax any moment now and instead, was shaking madly.  
Sasuke made Naruto sit on the couch and Sasuke crouched before him with a thinking face pulled over, accompanied by a furrow on his brows.  
Minutes ticked by rather quickly and Sasuke finally scratched his head roughly before announcing his thoughts.

"Okay he's what we'll do," Sasuke said, looking straight into Naruto's anxious eyes," normally it's too risky to do it ourselves, but since you're -... fast at healing, I'm going to re-adjust your arm to make sure it'll bend the right way again."  
Sasuke tried to make himself sound confident to take away Naruto's terrified feeling a little, but it didn't matter. Naruto looked_scared to death_, and Sasuke put effort into himself a little more to assure Naruto by giving him a smile and reassuring words.

"Trust me," he said.  
Those words struck Naruto's heart deeply and gave a starting push to the hand of his clock to start activating it which Naruto had stopped ages ago and had shoved it to the bottom of his Pandora box deep inside him.  
Naruto shakily nodded his head and Sasuke then pulled Naruto's head over to Sasuke's shoulder.

"Bite my shoulder, Naruto. It's gonna hurt," Sasuke ordered.  
Naruto didn't know what Sasuke was on about, but since he promised to trust Sasuke so he did as he was told.

"Harder, Naruto," Sasuke said.  
Not wanting to hurt Sasuke, Naruto only clamped his teeth on Sasuke's bare shoulder but bit a little more strongly by Sasuke's orders.

"Okay, here we go," Sasuke said and tugged hard on Naruto's left arm, pulling Naruto's radius away from the hinge joint of the elbow as he held Naruto's arm in place with his other hand.  
Naruto bit hard from an attempt to stop his screams and scraped hard at Sasuke's arm with his other free hand. He hand bitten so hard that Sasuke bled but Sasuke's didn't allow any sound to come out from his mouth.

"_Here we go again_," Sasuke said through his gritted teeth and pushed back Naruto's arm the right way.

"_Guh!_" This time, Sasuke didn't bother to stifle his painful groan.  
Naruto's grip on Sasuke by teeth and fingers tightened so fiercly that Sasuke had to stop himself from jerking, but didn't back away.  
The arm where Naruto dug into his flesh by his nails was letting blood escape from underneath the skin and the wound, where Naruto had bitten, was a blood fountain.  
Minutes passed before Naruto finally felt his violent pulse of pain calm, and let go, only to see what he had done and looked horrified at the sight.

"Sa-Sasuke… I-..." Naruto started.  
Sasuke gave a weak smirk at the sight of Naruto's helpless, mortified facial expression and pulled a hand towel over the wound which he had ready.

"It's okay, I intended for this to happen. It's not as bad as it looks anyway… The pain is nothing compared to yours," Sasuke explained before Naruto got a word of apology out of his mouth.  
Naruto looked down at his right hand where it was covered in blood.  
Just like when he used to wake up, finding unanswerable blood on his fingers and unquestionable scratches all over the house.  
Except, this time, it was _Sasuke's_ blood.

_This is…Sasuke's blood…_

With that thought, Naruto fell back softly and fainted on the couch.


	27. Chapter 27:Foretold, Forewarned

_This is…Sasuke's blood…__  
_

Chapter 27: Foretold, forewarned

When Naruto woke up, the first thing he saw was darkness and thought it was still night until the darkness _moved_.  
Startled, Naruto tried to push it back which he couldn't, and found himself strapped down with a protective arm that belonged to someone. Naruto looked up to see who it was and saw Sasuke's sleeping face from below.  
He smiled at the sleeping face looking at ease and snuggled further into Sasuke's chest before drifting off to sleep again.

The sun descended towards the horizon again before the two woke up from their slumber.  
Sasuke opened his eyes slowly, waking up at the feathery touch on his bandage on his shoulder that he had wrapped around himself.

Naruto was softly tracing the bandage lines, and then lifted his hand to face his palm to his face, recalling the blood that had been there last night.  
A voice startled Naruto when his eyes was starting to narrow from his guilt.

"It wasn't your fault."  
Naruto looked up to see Sasuke's smiling face.

"…you were awake?" Naruto whispered, to which Sasuke nodded.

"Hungry? I'll make you food," Sasuke said and got up.  
Naruto held Sasuke's sleeve and looked at him with a frightened look.

"Sasuke… they might see you," Naruto whispered, "they might come after you. What if they come? What if they see us together? What if -?"

"_Naruto!_" Sasuke said loudly after calling out a few times in a quiet voice and the blond stopped abruptly.  
Sasuke sighed inwardly.

"It's okay, don't panic. If you're _that_ worried, I'll leave this house," Sasuke said calmly which sent Naruto weeping into Sasuke's shirt.

"No! I didn't mean it that way! I'm sorry! I was just so scared! I-"

"I _know_, Naruto. _I know_," Sasuke replied softly, and with gentle care, held Naruto's hands with a smile brought to his lips.  
Naruto stared hard into the dark onyx eyes with his tears to the brim, with magnificent crystal blue light gleaming behind his transparent tears which was slightly tinted with the orange ray of sunlight. Sasuke's eyes were such a contrast to Naruto's that it was just as if Naruto eyes were the daylight sky, and Sasuke's eyes were the dark night sky.  
But if any darkness had warmth in it, it would be Sasuke's deep, kind eyes that seemed like the most welcoming darkness Naruto had ever experienced.  
It was always this darkness that soothed Naruto, which calmed his feelings that showed that he was dearly loved and cared for.

And he was about to let that go…

Naruto's grip slackened on Sasuke's sleeve and fell on the couch with a sulking face.  
Sasuke chuckled quietly before walking over to the kitchen to make some food for the two empty, growling stomachs that had missed 3 meals.

While Sasuke was cooking for a meal, Naruto looked empty on the couch where he lay.  
His heart beat was racing fast as if his red blood cells were having a world racing competition to see who can travel the fastest.  
Panic was deep down in Naruto's heart with a squirming feeling he was unsure of, which bothered him down to his hand which shook.  
Naruto's blue pair of eyes couldn't focus on the shaking palm he was seeing right in front of him, but the image of himself letting go of Sasuke playing through his mind over and over again.

_'…what was that feeling?__  
__The moment I let go of Sasuke, it felt like… it felt as if…'__  
_

When Naruto had let go of Sasuke's sleeve, Naruto had a odd feeling that he had let Sasuke slip away from his grip and had lost him, not being able to reach him anymore. And as he watched Sasuke move away, it looked like he was walking away from him like he will never come back.  
Naruto felt himself shake at the thought of Sasuke leaving Naruto's side forever, leaving him alone once again.

_Why did I feel-…? Would…would Sasuke really…leave me?_

A warm hand over Naruto's shaking hand eased Naruto's tension right away and he looked up to face the dark consumed eyes that Naruto loved more than anything.  
The deep eyes of Sasuke's were full of concern.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked as his brows furrowed at the sight of Naruto, with a helpless look.

"..Don't…don't…" Naruto tried to mumble out the words, but he couldn't form the words properly because his mouth was dry and his whole body was numb.

"Don't what?"  
Naruto shook his head, avoiding to say the words he was about to say with a second thought, but Sasuke didn't take that as an answer.  
Something was bothering Naruto and Sasuke wanted to help because he knew well that once Naruto has a problem, and he hides it, he keeps growing the pain within himself and won't allow others to help him out.

"Naruto. Trust me. You know you can trust me, Naruto," Sasuke quietly broke and seeped into Naruto's wall of barrier, ever so gently.

"…don't ever leave me, Sasuke. _Don't ever leave me again_," Naruto croaked while in tears, and he sounded so quiet as if he might fade away any time soon.  
His pleading look made Sasuke feel anxious and guilty as his heart got caught on the word 'ever' and when a certain person flashed through his mind, and his face showed it all, not bothering to hide it, but Sasuke answered nevertheless which nearly froze Naruto's insides.

"I can't... promise what I can't keep," Sasuke replied truthfully.  
Naruto was speechless.

"There is something I need to accomplish, and to do that, I have to later leave the village."  
Sasuke had his mind on the thought of being an avenger.  
He knew, even for Naruto, he couldn't let that pass.  
He would be leaving Naruto at some point to chase after someone who destroyed his clan to avenge, and Sasuke wanted to be honest with Naruto.  
All the time he spent with Naruto, the trust he finally got, he didn't want to ruin it all by lying to him and losing his trust again.

"But," Sasuke continued as he closed his eyes and brought Naruto's hand up, close to his face," but I promise I'll come back to you, Naruto. I can promise you that."

"Sasuke…you will… leave me?" Naruto croaked that made Sasuke feel a pang in his heart.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke breathed into Naruto's fingers, sounding sincerely apologetic.

"…Sasuke," Naruto said in a soft voice after a moment of silence, a different voice to his previous teary voice, that made dark, onyx eyes open slowly, only to be swallowed by such clear, azure eyes.

"Sasuke, I believe in you," Naruto said," I trust you."  
Sasuke eyes widened and let a tear streak down his face.

"…What?" Sasuke whispered dumbly, though he heard Naruto's words fine and clear the first time. He just wanted to make sure that he didn't hear it wrong and jumping into conclusions.

"I trust you, Sasuke," Naruto repeated, smiled, and brought Sasuke into a hug by pulling Sasuke forwards towards himself with slightly shaking hands.  
He doesn't know why he suddenly said that himself, where the courage came from.  
But when he saw Sasuke's fearful eyes, he knew he had to say something that would reassure Sasuke, not to make him worry.  
He knew he couldn't be selfish and have Sasuke all to himself, 24/7.  
That was just too much, like stealing his life away from him, his time, his mind, his soul along with it, just like the girls at school had said. Sasuke wasn't his slave. He didn't own Sasuke.

He felt that doing this, was his duty even if he wasn't too sure of what he said himself and to point out the fact, Naruto was shaking.  
Sasuke noticed this and knew Naruto was trying hard for him, to change and to trust.  
It was a huge leap for Naruto and he was about to do so, for the sake of Sasuke.

Wrapping his own arms around Naruto, Sasuke cried into Naruto's shoulder, thankful that Naruto was trying to understand him.

_I will keep my promise, Naruto. Because I wanna protect you…_

The next day, Sasuke got ready to leave Naruto's house and back to his own.  
Sasuke searched Naruto's face with concern.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Sasuke asked a deeply worried look.

"Sasuke~, you're worrying too much," Naruto whined," I'm not as helpless as I was when I was mute."  
At this, Sasuke smiled briefly. A warm and genuine one, which was going to be Naruto's last time seeing it.

"Good luck becoming strong, Sasuke," Naruto said, without a masked smile.  
Sasuke raised a hand as he walked away from Naruto's house without looking back; nevertheless, Naruto waved happily and went back into his house, shutting the door behind him. Only then did his smile falter.  
Last night, Naruto had asked what business Sasuke had to accomplish.

_-flashback-_

_"What?" Sasuke asked, looking up at Naruto lying on the couch.__  
__They were both ready to go to bed and laid themselves where they would be sleeping.__  
__Naruto on the couch and Sasuke on the mattress right next to the couch like always, but for the last time._

_"I said, what do you need to do so badly that you have to go out of the village?" Naruto asked straight forward._

_"…"_

_"Ah! It's okay if you can't tell me," Naruto said quickly when Sasuke looked troubled with his mouth half open, trying to say something but couldn't._

_Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes, "yeah, well I can't tell you the full story, but I can tell you bits of it."__  
__To this, Naruto excitedly leaned over the couch, moving closer to Sasuke.__  
__Sasuke opened his eyes and chuckled at Naruto's look which was as if he was about to get an early birthday present._

_"…I need to get stronger to surpass a certain person who is no longer in this village," Sasuke said, choosing his words carefully so he won't lie but hide the bitter truth in it.__  
__Naruto looked at Sasuke in awe, thinking of how great Sasuke must be to train hard to reach up to someone strong.__  
__He admired Sasuke's ambition so much that his eyes sparkled in the dark, towards Sasuke's unnoticed dark, depressing onyx eyes, full of hurt, past memories.__  
__But a smile flicked over Sasuke's face, seeing Naruto's surprised look, so pure and innocent._

Unlike me_Sasuke thought._

_"Sasuke!"_

_"Hm?" Sasuke looked up slightly surprised at the sudden loudness in Naruto's voice._

_"I made up my mind. I'm going to aim to be strong like you. I will train too and become strong so that everyone will one day acknowledge me!" Naruto said, confidently, but his eyes showed a bit of fear," so… so Sasuke. You can go home tomorrow."_

_"Eh?" Sasuke's eyes drew the moonlight in and reflected it out along with his emotions.__  
__Naruto saw this and smiled._

_"Its okay, Sasuke. I'll be alright. You need more time for yourself. Don't waste it all on me."__  
__Sasuke was shocked at the speed of progress Naruto was making.__  
__No matter how fast people change, Naruto was exceptionally fast which made Sasuke look up to him as well, though Naruto didn't know anything about Sasuke's thoughts._

_"Are you… really sure about this?" Sasuke asked, slowly. Naruto reached up to Sasuke's hand and held them right to his face._

_"Yeah…"_

_-end flashback-_

"Yeah… I'll prove it to you, that I can be as strong as you…" Naruto muttered what he said the previous night.  
He sighed and sat down, hugging his knees and lowering his head on his knees.

"I don't know why I said that… I don't know if I can make it, Sasuke…maybe I made a promise I can't keep… I'm such a baka…"


	28. Chapter 28:Different paths

_Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me._

_"Yeah… I'll prove it to you, that I can be as strong as you…_

_I don't know why I said that… I don't know if I can make it, Sasuke…maybe I made a promise I can't keep… I'm such a baka…"_

Chapter 28: Different paths ~Final~

Sasuke got worried when the school bell rang and the class started. Everybody is chatting in the classroom, not noticing if the class was chipped with one person missing. The classroom was a picture of a mild yellow tone, happy faces and in groups except one stoic raven that didn't even paint his emotions outside on his face, visible to everyone.

Scenarios of the worst kept fogging up the raven's thoughts while the familiar blond wasn't there to calm his feelings, but instead his memories, invading the heart-racing raven's mind. The scared, worried blond might not show up after all, Sasuke wasn't there to support him and protect him through coming to school.

After what seemed like hell of a time passing, a short blond came to view from the classroom door.

A huge wave of relief and guilt washed over him knocking Sasuke over his board, mentally inside. It was good to see that the blond had made it just as he said, but Naruto's goofy expression was the mask he had put on to hide all his feelings, trapping it deep inside. To Sasuke, this felt like he had accomplished nothing, and got back to the beginning, the very start when Naruto and Sasuke first met.

Sasuke's stoic face only worked on people other than Naruto, and Naruto saw through Sasuke's true face expression to which he gave Sasuke a smile, a genuine smile. Whoosh, and all Sasuke's negative thoughts and emotions were gone, replaced by a warm, soft feeling and got the message that Naruto was going to be alright and he wasn't going to crack his mask or break down from the inside anytime soon.

Naruto took a seat in the front to Sasuke's surprise, who was seated half way behind the class. He shifted his leg slightly and was ready to stand up to go over to Naruto when Iruka sensei came in to start the class. Sasuke shifted back his leg and gathered his fingers together to support his chin, resting on it.

He couldn't see to what Naruto was thinking, and was thinking all about Naruto, that he wasn't paying any attention to the sensei all period long. At break, Naruto quickly rushed out of the classroom as if running away from someone, avoiding that person. To much irritation, Sasuke felt so strongly that it was him that Naruto was avoiding. Unasked questions were swirling in his head, bursting to be let out of his mouth which he had to refrain by sealing his mouth mentally.

Sasuke walked around the school until he heard a sharp cry that made his heart jolt in fear. He knew that voice, and he didn't like the movements the shadows were making on the frosted glass of a classroom door. Rushing to the door, which was wide open for Sasuke to see everything in action.

No one except Naruto was facing the door as a few kids surrounded the helpless little blond, curled up into a small ball on the class floor. Naruto saw Sasuke as Sasuke was about to barge into the scene to stop this bullying, and Naruto shook his head slightly which Sasuke took note of with the help of Naruto's flashing eyes of a warning.

Sasuke's face was confused on what to do and felt his insides pulse red hot in panic, but Naruto kept signalling with the smallest movements to make Sasuke back away before he was noticed by the others. They both knew that if Sasuke was seen helping Naruto out, they would be in trouble from the encounter with an old man who gave Sasuke a warning not to go near Naruto anymore.

With a pleading face, Naruto hoped Sasuke would get the message as he endured the pain he received against his ribs and stomach. Naruto bit his lower lip as hard as he could until he was bleeding, to stop himself from crying out loud. Sasuke gritted his teeth and slowly backed away with all the force he could muster, going against his will until he was out of site, then ran as fast as he could, ignoring the sickly feeling of betraying a friend, only to do what he thought was the most he could achieve at that point.

Once again as class started, everybody took their seats and Naruto sat at the back, evidently shaking from pain, visible to everyone who looked at his way, except the teacher, but no one paid any attention to the slightly broken little blond crumpling onto the his desk while panting as his body naturally started to heal with glowing red marks appearing underneath his clothes, unnoticeable to anyone.

Naruto though, oddly noticed as he kept glancing towards Sasuke's direction, that Sasuke was busy writing something on a piece of paper that he didn't pay any attention to the teacher nor look as though he was worried about Naruto. This made Naruto's heart sink a little lower, even though he knew that he had to believe and trust in Sasuke who gave him his all. A small sigh escaped Naruto's parted lips as if his energy was getting sucked out of him, and with a final glance towards Sasuke, Naruto's eyelids closed for him to rest till the end of the day.

The school ended and everybody filed out including Sasuke who swept his eyes a little towards Naruto's way before heading out of class, ready to go home. Naruto woke up in a silent classroom and he realized that he was all alone with not even Sasuke waiting for him there like Naruto thought should be. His glassy eyes hid all emotions as he pulled a smile, his mask over an emotion which no one was there to see in the first place.

After a few minutes of staring down at the seat where Sasuke was a few hours ago, Naruto moved his heavy legs that denied movement, but the other side of Naruto wanted to go back home where he felt most comfortable. He dragged himself out of the building to find a couple of shadows cast along the ground before him and he dreaded the worst outcome as he slowly raised his head, but widened his eyes at the sight, he saw in front of him.

A guy with a bored face with hands in his pockets, and another with a fat appearance, eating a packet of potato chips was in Naruto's vision to who he recognized as his classmates.

"You're so slow..." the guy with the bored face sighed, "hurry up and lets go already."

"W-what,s-s-sorry?" Naruto managed to stutter out after overcoming his shock.

"Shikamaru said 'let's go home together'", the fat one translated to a much simpler wording to Naruto who still stayed rooted to the ground still confused with the situation he was in since he had never coped this kind before.

"Come on, Naruto, Chouji," Shikamaru said as he started to walk towards the direction of his home, followed by Chouji.

Shikamaru stopped after hearing only one pair of footsteps following him and he turned around to the frozen blond.

"Are you coming or not?" Shikamaru sighed.

"...I-I can... go home w-w-with you guys?" Naruto forced out from his quivering lips.

To that Shikamaru gave a smirk like smile, "of course. That's why we offered."

The shaking blond walked over to join the pair, not believing this situation at all. As they walked home, Naruto couldn't stop sobbing and he continuously rubbed his tears away with his sleeve, walking between the two new friends he made.

"Is this where you live?" Shikamaru asked looking up at the old dirty building isolated from the other houses.

"Ye-"

"No, it is not."

The three turned around to see a person behind them which none of them noticed until the voice reached their ears.

"The Hokage!" the three said in unison.

The old man smiled warmly and looked down at the three children.

"W-what do you mean by 'its not'...s-sir?" Naruto asked, afraid that he was even going to lose this house.

"You no longer are going to live here, Naruto," the Hokage directed his speech towards the shaking blond, "I've got you another place to stay now, in the village."

Naruto's eyes widened with shock for the umpteenth time having so many shocking things going on recently.

"I am sorry for all the patience you had to deal with, but I now hereby give you another residence, Uzumaki Naruto," the Hokage announced formally, gesturing him to follow. The three kids followed this old man into the new residence where Naruto looked around in awe, turning round and round until he got dizzy and fell on the floor. He laughed at the moving ceiling his eyes were making him see. Everywhere was so clean and tidy with bedrooms, bathrooms and fridges that made the blond happier than he ever could be which made tears form in his eyes from joy.

"I shall take my leave now," Hokage said after leaving a key on the table, but Naruto didn't have time to thank the Hokage since he is fast with departure with a poof. Thinking it was about time for Shikamaru and Chouji to go, the crouched down to where Naruto was to inform their leave.

"Hey, Naruto. Tomorrow we'll introduce you to some other friends, and we'll also be here in the morning so we could all go to school together, okay?" Shikamaru's words were like magically spoken almost foreign to Naruto as he felt like he was in dream world, but if it was so; he didn't want to wake up from that dream world, ever again.

Naruto felt a smack on his head and he clutched it in pain, "it's not a dream world so snap out of it," Shikamaru sighed.

"That hur- what? H-how did you know I was thinking-?" Naruto asked, Shikamaru's words sinking in after a few seconds.

"Because your eyes started to daze and leave this world to go into your own," Shikamaru sighed once again before he stood up, "anyway, we'll be here tomorrow morning."

"See ya," Chouji said, waving a hand, his smile never leaving his face.

"Oh, by the way," Shikamaru stopped in his tracks and walked back to Naruto, "here's something for you."

Shikamaru handed Naruto an envelope directly into Naruto's hands before once again, taking his leave with Chouji trailing after him.

Too good to be real, Naruto froze for a long time before pinching his cheek, then rolling around the floor, having to pinch his cheek harder than he originally had planned.

"Owwwww" Naruto shouted alone in his new home, while somewhere up in the trees outside, a certain raven sat on a high branch, observing the blond with a small chuckle.

The raven left a word before vanishing from the tree.

"Usuratonkachi"


	29. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto and settings are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto not me._

_

* * *

_

-Epilogue-

"GYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The loud obnoxious voice coming from the Konoha village was no one other than Naruto.

He laughed at his piece of work with a wide grin. It was the graffiti on the wall of the great Hokages. The 3rd Hokage's assistants were scolding at Naruto from below, but Naruto mind it. It was an every day thing.

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS! None of you guys could do something this horrible. But I can! I am incredible!" Naruto says so proudly and then continues on with his graffiti until he catches off balance from certain voice.

Iruka sensei breathes in deeply and shouts at the top of his lungs, " WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING DURING CLASS TIME? GET DOWN HERE, YOU MORON-!"

"Guys! Listen up! I'm gonna be the greatest _Hokage_ in _Konoha-ttebayo_! _So guys!_ Be prepared for the great _Uzumaki Naruto~!_"

The usual hyperactive joker once again screamed out his speech like every other day with the most enthusiasm compared to the rest of the classmates after his performance of 'sexy no jutsu' and getting scolded at Iruka sensei again, including the continuation of the lecture on the subject of the graffiti. Everybody sighed and some of them told him to shut up but Naruto ignored them giving everybody a wide smile and big thumbs up sign. Iruka shouted into Naruto's face with such extreme that Naruto squints his eyes from the wind and his hair blew back with a huge force.

The whole class started to laugh at Naruto and Naruto gave a pout to Iruka sensei.

"It's not like its permanent~ and besides, they aren't good enough for the great Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna surpass them all!" Naruto demanded, grinning but a furious shout was thrown back at him full force.

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU SURPASS THEM OR NOT IT IS YOUR DUTY TO RESPECT THEM AND STOP WITH THESE FOOLISH PRANKS RIGHT NOW OR I WILL STUFF YOU INTO THE FISH TANK UNTIL YOU BECOME A FISH AND I'LL KEEP YOU THERE SO I CAN KEEP AN EYE ON YOU 24/7 SO YOU CANNOT GET OUT OF MY SIGHT TO PULL PRANKS EVER AGAIN!"

Naruto glanced at the small fish bowl tank that was on Iruka sensei's desk and had a small eye contact with the fish who seemed to say don't come into my personal bubble.

"Awwww, but Iruka sensei... If you do that, then I can't train and become the greatest Hokage in Kono-," Naruto complained.

"THEN I SUGGEST YOU _BEHAVE__!_" Iruka boiled with rage, and feeling Naruto hit a danger zone, he stepped backwards with a twitching smile that he tried best to make while he apologised, trying to calm the angry devil in burning flames.

Naruto walked to the back of the class to his seat, and when he passed a certain raven, the raven "Hn" ed at Naruto causing Naruto to glare at the stoic boy who ignored it completely.

This stoic boy, who was good at everything and anything, was Naruto's biggest rival, not to mention Naruto was the worst at everything and anything, and Naruto had to definitely surpass that raven.

Naruto sighed and got himself seated ready to sleep through the boring classes of school.

But when he closed his eyes and entered a different world to the one in reality, he would always see the past and see a certain raven smiling at him and sharing laughs, one that doesn't ever exist on the face of a stoic raven ever again.

Naruto went through his recent memories, which was about half a year ago.

_-flashback-_

_"Oh, by the way," Shikamaru stopped in his tracks and walked back to Naruto, "here'__s__ something for you."_

_Shikamaru handed Naruto an envelope directly into Naruto's hands before once again, taking his leave with Chouji trailing after him._

"_Um, hey!" Naruto stopped the two before they disappeared out of his sight for that day._

_They both turned around at the small blond sitting upright on the floor._

"_Um...w-why... why did you s-suddenly want to be-become my f-f-friend?" Naruto asked nervously, without making eye contact._

"_Because a certain person came up to us and crouched down to his knees, begging for us to take care of you. Not that we mind__ed__ becoming your friend__ if he had just asked us straight__," Shikamaru replied before shutting the door._

_Sasuke..._

_Naruto opened the envelope and took out a letter with Sasuke's neat hand writing scrawled upon lines of it, trying to communicate with Naruto._

_Naruto,_

_I am sorry that I couldn't do anything for you. I feel so hopeless as I haven't done anything to keep your smiling face. It hurts to see your tears, so Naruto; I have asked people I know to have you as friends. I'm sure that old man can't threaten a whole bunch of kids. Though I think it's a bad idea if I still stay by your side. I left you by their hands, and I know they aren't bad people. I hope you get along with them because I asked them to walk you to and from school, just in case of things. And as you read this, I think you will be placed into another flat. I went to ask the Hokage for a change of home. I hope this makes your life a bit easier. It will at least keep you away from that crazy people in that pub. I'm sorry this pretty much all I can do. I hope this will make your life a bit easier. I will always be on your side__ no matter__ happens Naruto. Don't forget that. I will always trust you. We'll always be friends. I promise._

_Naruto smiled and wiped away the tears that came down alongside both cheeks. He looked up at the trees through the window as he felt as if someone was watching from there, but seeing nothing, his eyes averted back to the letter, and swapped the papers around to read the second page._

_It was a scenario Sasuke had made out for the two._

_Naruto, to be acknowledged by the village people, you have to achieve something great and earn the respect. Aim to become someone important to the village, and you will never have to feel shunned by people. Let us become strong together and train hard so no one can pull us apart again. We are bound together by a strong bond, so I'm sure the day will come where we will be able to spend time together again without any interference. Hate me, despise me, and become stronger than me. Make me your rival. That is the only way for us to be closer together without anyone going to tear us apart anymore. Act it all out and so we are the only one's who actually know what kind of real bond there is connecting us together other than rivalry. And perhaps act out being in love with a girl who likes me. If you are close to that girl, you would naturally be close to me. I hope this works out. Good luck, usuratonkachi._

_Naruto made a barely audible laugh at the last word._

"_Bastard__, you got too many girls for me to choose from...__"_

_-end flashback-_

"...up. ...ke up."

_Hmmm...?_

Naruto stirrs.

"I said _WAKE UP, NARUTO!__"_Iruka sensei screamed.

Naruto jumped up in his chair, very alert now.

"How dare you graffiti over the great Hokage-samas and on top of that, i_sleep in my class_!/i" Iruka sensei lectured Naruto and Naruto's face drooped with boredom, covering his ears with a casual "yeah, yeah," reply.

Iruka twitches from anger, and then suddenly grabs Naruto by the scruff of the neck and literally drags him out of his chair and out to the corridor and all the way to the great wall of Konoha.

"I'm won't let you go home until you clean all of it," Iruka sensei growls from above, his arms folded and watching Naruto intensely from anger..

"Like I care... It's not like I have anyone to go home to," Naruto shot back.

Naruto looked back down and continued wiping the graffiti.

_Yeah... It's not like Sasuke will be there for me anymore...waiting for me to come home and say 'okaeri'... while I say... 'tadaima'..._

Iruka sensei's face falls as he knows what Naruto is thinking about. He had heard all from Sasuke the plan that he set up for the two, and he was willing to help, but he couldn't help but notice the loneliness that was coming from Naruto.

"Naruto.,."

"Now what?" Naruto glumly looked up and waited for another lecture.

"Well...um... if you clean all this up, I'll buy you some ramen tonight," Iruka said with a little embarrassment, feeling a little father-like and having a soft spot on Naruto.

But when he saw Naruto's face lit up, he felt it was worth it.

"**OK!** I'll work hard! I WILL!"

* * *

And so with extremely high motivation, Naruto scrubbed and scrubbed as he was going to get treated by Iruka sensei to his favourite food shop, Ichiraku ramen-ya.

A new year started and already the day where all the genins were going to be placed into a team with a jounin teacher assisting them came.

Naruto's supposed-to-love Sakura went up to Sasuke once again for the umpteenth time which Naruto grew tired of and not being able to stand the jealousy of her position for being able to talk to Sasuke freely, he jumped up onto the desk in front of Sasuke and glared at him.

Both boys glared at each other thinking the same thing, 'What the hell do you think you're doing!'

'Letting Sakura be so close to you as if you don't care being her boyfriend!' Naruto thought.

'Wanting us to get caught!' Sasuke thought.

They both glared harder as if it will make a difference in sending the message in telepathy, though it was entirely impossible for them to know what the other was thinking. And strangely in the middle of a glaring competition, a boy at the front leaned back and tried to put his arm on the table behind him, not knowing Naruto was there. The arm bumps into Naruto's back and without a second to spare, Naruto was thrown forwards where his lips accidentally crushed against Sasuke's. It felt like the time stopped and they were both shocked as if they turned into stone and hit the floor of the sea.

As soon as they found their senses back, they turned around and gasped.

Sasuke's heart thumped wildly in his ribcage with his blood running cold from the outcome, the revelation of the connection between the two. But Naruto's blood ran cold for another reason. He felt the very dark and very dangerous aura flaring from all the girls in the class.

"Na~ru~to~" Sakura growled, shooting daggers with her eyes at the poor blond. Sasuke heard this and turned around to see the angry crowd of black bulls seeing red before their eyes.

"W-wait, Sakura-chan," Naruto tried to smile his best, not wanting her to come any closer, trying to explain that it was an accident, but not a chance given, he was beaten up by the girls before he could choke out anything from his mouth.

Naruto leaned his head on the desk with bruises, sighing, while Sasuke looked at the blond with a smirk hidden behind his laced fingers.

_Usuratonkachi..._

_

* * *

_

With Iruka's help, they managed to get Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura in the same 3-man-cell with a jounin named Hatake Kakashi, who partially knew about Naruto and Sasuke's situation by Iruka's information and had the boys put into the hands of Kakashi. Kakashi didn't like this sort of thing and sighed but gave in since he had interests in that raven head boy, the last of the Uchiha clan.

He found it amusing to see how the two boys acted as if they hated each other, but see Sasuke's concerns in his eyes over the smaller boy.

When getting the bells off Kakashi, Sasuke offered Naruto his obento.

When Naruto fell down a waterfall, Sasuke caught him before Naruto reached the bottom.

When the boy, Haku was attacking the two, Sasuke protected Naruto until halfway through, when the tables switched round.

At a certain mission one day, Kakashi told the two boys to stay in a room separate to Sakura's room and Kakashi's room when they normally only had two bedrooms, separated by gender.

"Why do I have to sleep in a room where there's only this bastard with me!" Naruto shouted like a toddler, stamping his foot. Sasuke sighed at Naruto's immature behaviour. They both didn't, or rather couldn't see Kakashi smirk behind his mask.

"I thought it's about time you two should be together alone without any interference," Kakashi replied.

"HUH!" Naruto growled in annoyance, but Sasuke caught up pretty quickly and glared at Kakashi as if daring him to do anything that will upset their situation right now.

"Now, now, Sasuke. Don't kill me with that glare of yours. I was told by Iruka sensei about most of what I need to know. Just relax and talk about... uh, other than training or fighting to get to know each other more," Kakashi hinted in a bored tone as if they've been in this situation many times before.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly while the small orange figure beside him had question marks floating all over his head, trying to figure out what his sensei just said, but without further talking Kakashi walked to his room raising a hand before he disappeared into his own room.

That meant Sasuke had Naruto all to himself, without any worries about who might be overhearing or watching. Sasuke smirked at pulled Naruto into their room with Naruto's exclamation of "Wah!" with the sudden movement.

Sasuke quickly closed the door and Naruto tried to keep himself balanced, then turned around to Sasuke to shout.

"Oi! What was that fo-mph!" Naruto staggered back, slamming onto the door and then Sasuke had pulled Naruto into a tight hug.

"Sa..Sasuke?" Naruto whispered in shock his hands at his sides, trembling.

"It's okay, Naruto. Kakashi gave us time for us to be together alone... to talk...to spend time like we used to," Sasuke said, covering his smile behind Naruto's shoulder, his emotions overcoming with joy.

"K-k-k-k-k-k-Kakashi sensei knows!" Naruto gasped.

Sasuke nodded into his shoulder, loving the familiar smell of Naruto that was soaked into Naruto's trademark orange clothes. How he missed them so much. Naruto hesitantly moved his arms up to embrace Sasuke as well, then finding confidence, hugging back tightly.

"I missed you," Naruto said through sobs, "I missed you so much, Sasuke..."

They were always so close, yet so far that they couldn't tear away the wall created between the two.

"I missed you too, Naruto..." Sasuke whispered.

The two lay down side by side on the futon laid right next to each other and they laughed and talked about many things that the two missed out on each other.

"Hey, Sasuke..." Naruto said quietly after their laughter died down, "thanks for the letter... the new residence... and the other friends..."

"..."

"Sasuke?"

"That was nothing... I couldn't even protect you and your smile..." Sasuke muttered, lowering his gaze from the ceiling.

"Sasuke~," Naruto whined, "stop being an ass because you did everything for me. Everything I dreamed, I wanted and you helped me out of that miserable life. I don't call that nothing!"

Sasuke looked down at Naruto's side where his black shirt was raised slightly; showing a small, thin line that wasn't healing quick, meaning that it had been a pretty deep one and Sasuke could only wonder how much pain it would've caused Naruto.

"That... did you get it while you were in the village by yourself?" Sasuke said quietly.

Naruto looked at Sasuke and looked down to see where his eyes were set on. He quickly pulled down his shirt and hid it away from Sasuke's sight. Sasuke sighed and put an arm across his forehead as if he admitted a defeat.

"Sa~suke~, its not your fault!" Naruto growled, angry at himself for carelessly revealing his injuries for Sasuke to spot when he didn't want Sasuke to worry.

"I'll be more careful, na?" Naruto said with a fake smile, but Sasuke didn't move and kept his eyes hidden under his arm. Naruto pouted, and tried to lighten the mood.

"Hey, remember the day I accidentally kissed you at school? That was soooo funny!" Naruto suddenly said sitting up, laughing out loud truly laughing at the humour he felt.

Sasuke lowered his arm slowly to cover lower where he was blushing and peered at Naruto who was clutching his stomach, hurting from laughter.

"I...remember... so well, the face you made! Soo funny! I wish I took a picture!" Naruto gasped through his muffled laughter.

Sasuke growled, and glared at the blond, but slowly his facial expression softened at the sight of the laughing blond, making himself smile. After the laughter subsided, Naruto turned to Sasuke.

"That was the first time _I_ kissed you. Do you remember the first time _you_ kissed me?" Naruto asked with a smirk. Sasuke blushed and denied that he kissed but tried to run through his memory, not finding such incident.

"You don't remember?" Naruto frowned, "it was that time when I was mute, and I refused to eat."

An image flew into Sasuke's mind and the blush came back full force.

"Th-that wasn't a kiss!" Sasuke stuttered.

Naruto grinned, "oh, re~ally? Then what was it?"

"I only did it because I thought it would calm your feelings... cause mother used to do it all the time," Sasuke explained.

Naruto nodded suspiciously with a wide grin to which Sasuke glared.

"Sometimes it's really hard to keep this up, Sasuke..." Naruto sighed, lying back down.

Sasuke looked across to the blond.

"We can slowly become friends now. I think we have enough people on our side..." Sasuke said after a moment of silent thinking.

"Really?" Naruto asked quickly, widening his bright azure eyes towards Sasuke.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, "only one step at a time though..."

Naruto nodded and rolled over to hug Sasuke into a suffocating hug.

"Na...ruto... you're gonna kill me!" Sasuke gasped, and Naruto loosened his grip looking up at Sasuke with an apologetic smile. Sasuke smiled back and pulled an arm over Naruto.

Their exciting moments reach their limit to exhaustion and their drowsiness overcomes them, allowing them to sleep together with their arms wrapped around each other.

"Naruto... I will always protect you..." Sasuke whispered lastly before he fell asleep.

_I will always protect you..._

_

* * *

_

-(end)( to continue reading this story without the backstage story, read NARUTO, following onto NARUTO Shippuuden)


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